Λ_b→Λℓ+^ℓ- form factors and differential branching fraction from lattice QCD

We present the first lattice QCD determination of the Λ _b→Λ transition form factors that govern the rare baryonic decays Λ_b→Λℓ⁺ℓ^- at leading order in heavy-quark effective theory. Our calculations are performed with 2+1 flavors of domain-wall fermions, at two lattice spacings and with pion masses down to 227 MeV. Three-point functions with a wide range of source-sink separations are used to extract the ground-state contributions. The form factors are extrapolated to the physical values of the light-quark masses and to the continuum limit. We use our results to calculate the differential branching fractions for Λ_b→Λℓ⁺ℓ ^- with ℓ=e, μ, τ within the standard model. We find agreement with a recent CDF measurement of the Λ_b→ Λμ⁺μ^- differential branching fraction.