Direct observation of the decayh0(2040)→p¯p

We have observed the decay $h^0\mathrm{}\left(2040\right)\mathrm{}\to \overline{p}p$ in the reaction ${\pi }^{+}n\to \overline{p}\mathrm{pp}$ at 10 GeV/c detected in the large-aperture solenoid spectrometer at SLAC. We have measured the product of the cross section and branching ratio, $\sigma ({\pi }^{+}n\to h^0\mathrm{}(2040\left)p\right)B\left(h^0\mathrm{}\right(2040)\mathrm{}\to \overline{p}p)$, to be 0.84±0.17 μb. The moments of the angular distribution are consistent with the quantum numbers of the $h^0$ meson being $J^{\mathrm{PC}}=4^{++}$ and $I^G=0^{+}$.