Observation of charmless B meson decays

Abstract Using the ARGUS detector at the e + e − storage ring DORIS II, we have observed charmless decays of B mesons into the final states ppπ ± and ppπ + π − . The significance of the signal corresponds to more than five standard deviations. The branching ratios are (5.2±1.4±1.9)×10 −4 for the three-body and (6.0±2.0±2.2)×10 −4 for the four-body final state. These decays cannot proceed via the dominant b→c transitions, and we show that they are not the result of penguin-type processes. Thus, the observed decays must represent b→u quark transitions. Consequently, the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element V ub is non-zero.