Observation of charmless B meson decays

Using the ARGUS detector at the e⁺e⁻ storage ring DORIS II, we have observed charmless decays of B mesons into the final states pp̄π^± and pp̄π⁺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.