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First Observation of the Semileptonic Decay $Λ_c^+\rightarrow pK^- e^+ν_e$

Using $4.5~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ annihilation data samples collected at the center-of-mass energies ranging from 4.600~GeV to 4.699~GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, a first study of the semileptonic decays $Λ_c^+\rightarrow pK^-e^+ν_e$, $Λ_c^+\rightarrow Λ(1520) e^+ν_e$ and $Λ_c^+\rightarrow Λ(1405) e^+ν_e$ is performed. The $Λ_c^+\rightarrow pK^-e^+ν_e$ decay is observed with a significance of $8.2σ$ and the branching fraction is measured to be $\mathcal{B}(Λ_c^+\rightarrow pK^- e^+ν_e)=(0.88\pm0.17_{\rm stat.}\pm0.07_{\rm syst.})\times 10^{-3}$. We also report evidence of $Λ_c^+\rightarrow Λ(1520)e^+ν_e$ and $Λ_c^+\rightarrow Λ(1405)e^+ν_e$ with significances of $3.3σ$ and $3.2σ$, respectively, and measure $\mathcal B(Λ^+_c\rightarrow Λ(1520)e^+ν_e)=(1.02\pm0.52_{\rm stat.}\pm0.11_{\rm syst.})\times10^{-3}$ and $\mathcal B(Λ^+_c\rightarrow Λ(1405)[\rightarrow pK^-]e^+ν_e)=(0.42\pm0.19_{\rm stat.}\pm0.04_{\rm syst.})\times10^{-3}$. Combining these with the inclusive semileptonic $Λ_c^+$ branching fraction measured by BESIII, the relative fraction is determined to be $[\mathcal{B}(Λ_c^+\rightarrow pK^-e^+ν_e)/\mathcal{B}(Λ_c^+\rightarrow X e^+ν_e)]=(2.1\pm0.4_{\rm stat.}\pm0.2_{\rm syst.})\%$, which provides a clear confirmation that semileptonic $Λ_c^+$ decays are not saturated by the $Λ\ell^+ν_{\ell}$ final state.