A High Statistics Measurement of the ${\Lambda }_c^{+}$ Lifetime

A high statistics measurement of the ${\Lambda }_c^{+}$ lifetime from the Fermilab fixed-target FOCUS photoproduction experiment is presented. We describe the analysis technique with particular attention to the determination of the systematic uncertainty. The measured value of $204.6\pm 3.4\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 2.5\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\mathrm{fs}$ from $8034\pm 122{\Lambda }_c^{+}\to {\mathrm{pK}}^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ decays represents a significant improvement over the present world average.