Observation of the decay $B_c rightarrow J/psi K^+ K^- pi^+ $

The decay $B_crightarrow J/psi K^+ K^- pi^+$ is observed for the first time, using proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb$^{-1}$. A signal yield of $78pm14$ decays is reported with a significance of 6.2 standard deviations. The ratio of the branching fraction of $B_c rightarrow J/psi K^+ K^- pi^+$ decays to that of $B_c rightarrow J/psi pi^+$ decays is measured to be $0.53pm 0.10pm0.05$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.