A measurement of asymmetry in the decay Λc+ → Λπ+

Using the ARGUS detector at the e + e − storage ring DORIS II at DESY, we have observed parity violation in the decay Λ ± c → Λπ ± . We measure the coefficient of parity violation, α Λ c , to be −0.96±0.42. In addition, we measure σ BR ( Λ + c → Λπ + and σ BR ( Λ + c → Σ 0 π + ) to be, respectively, (2.2±0.3±0.4) pb and (2.0±0.7±0.4) pb.