First observation of the decay $B^0 rightarrow D^0 overline{D}{}^0 K^+ pi^-$

The first observation of the decay $B^0 rightarrow D^0 overline{D}{}^0 K^+ pi^-$ is reported using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 $mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment in 2011, 2012 and 2016. The measurement is performed in the full kinematically allowed range of the decay outside of the $D^{*-}$ region. The ratio of the branching fraction relative to that of the control channel $B^0 rightarrow D^{*-} D^0 K^+$ is measured to be $mathcal{R} = (14.2 pm 1.1 pm 1.0)%$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The absolute branching fraction of $B^0 rightarrow D^0 overline{D}{}^0 K^+ pi^-$ decays is thus determined to be $mathcal{B}(B^0 rightarrow D^0 overline{D}{}^0 K^+ pi^-) = (3.50 pm 0.27 pm 0.26 pm 0.30) times 10^{-4}$, where the third uncertainty is due to the branching fraction of the control channel. This decay mode is expected to provide insights to spectroscopy and the charm-loop contributions in rare semileptonic decays.