We search for the rare decay
B+→K+νν¯ in a
362 fb−1 sample of electron-positron collisions at the
ϒ(4S) resonance collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB collider. We use the inclusive properties of the accompanying
B meson in
ϒ(4S)→BB¯ events to suppress background from other decays of the signal
B candidate and light-quark pair production. We validate the measurement with an auxiliary analysis based on a conventional hadronic reconstruction of the accompanying
B meson. For background suppression, we exploit distinct signal features using machine learning methods tuned with simulated data. The signal-reconstruction efficiency and background suppression are validated through various control channels. The branching fraction is extracted in a maximum likelihood fit. Our inclusive and hadronic analyses yield consistent results for the
B+→K+νν¯ branching fraction of
[2.7±0.5(stat)±0.5(syst)]×10−5 and
[1.1−0.8+0.9(stat)−0.5+0.8(syst)]×10−5, respectively. Combining the results, we determine the branching fraction of the decay
B+→K+νν¯ to be
[2.3±0.5(stat)−0.4+0.5(syst)]×10−5, providing the first evidence for this decay at 3.5 standard deviations. The combined result is 2.7 standard deviations above the standard model expectation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024