Professor Brian Foster OBE, FRS

Abstract:

A new technique involving the time-difference distribution of a tagged sample of fully reconstructed neutral B decays was used to determine the B0-B̄0 mixing frequency Δmd. The obtained result is consistent with the current world average and a recent BABAR measurement with a dilepton sample.

Abstract:

An overview is given on the measurement of the time dependence of B0-B̄0 mixing using data collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric energy e+e- collider operated at or near the Υ(4S) resonance. The result is the single most precise measurements to date and is consistent with a recent BABAR measurement with a fully reconstructed B0 sample, as well as the world average of previous measurements.

Abstract:

New measurements of Ds+ and Ds*+ meson production rates from B decays and from qq̄ continuum events near the Y(4S) resonance are presented. Using 20.8 fb-1 of data on the Y(4S) resonance and 2.6 fb-1 off-resonance, we find the inclusive branching fractions B(B→Ds+ X)=(10.93±0.19±0.58±2.73)% and B(B→Ds*+X)=(7.9±0.8±0.7 ±2.0)%, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the Ds+→φπ+ branching fraction uncertainty. The production cross sections σ(e+e- →Ds+X) × B(Ds+→φπ+)=7.55±0.20 ±0.34 pb and σ(e+e-→Ds *±X) × B(Ds+→φπ+) = 5.8±0.7±0.5 pb are measured at center-of-mass energies about 40 MeV below the Y(4S) mass. The branching fractions ΣB(B→Ds(*)+ D̄(*))=(5.07±0.14±0.30±1.27)% and ∑B(B→Ds*+D̄(*)) =(4.1±0.2±0.4±1.0)% are determined from the Ds(*)+ momentum spectra. The mass difference m(Ds+)-m(D+)=98.4±0.1 ±0.3 MeV/c2 is also measured.

Abstract:

A search has been made for lepton-flavor-violating interactions of the type e+p→lX, where l denotes a μ or τ with high transverse momentum, at a center-of-mass energy √s of 300 GeV with an integrated luminosity of 47.7 pb-1 using the ZEUS detector at HERA. No evidence was found for lepton-flavor violation and constraints were derived on leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below √s, limits are set on λeq1βlq, where λeq1 is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a first-generation quark q1 and βlq is the branching ration of the LQ to l and a quark. For LQ masses exceeding √s, limits are set on the four-fermion contact-interaction term λeqα λlqβ/M2LQ for leptoquarks that couple to an electron and a quark qα and also to l and a quark qβ. Some of the limits are also applicable to lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in R-parity-violating supersymmetric models. In some cases involving heavy quarks and especially for l=τ, the ZEUS limits are the most stringent published to date.

Abstract:

We have studied the B±→J/ψπ± and B±→J/ψK± decays using a 20.7 fb-1 data set collected with the BABAR detector. We observe a signal of 51±10 B±→J/ψπ± events and determine the ratio B(B± →J/ψπ±)/B(B±→J/ψ K±) to be [3.91±0.78(stat)±0.19(syst)]%. The CP-violating charge asymmetries for the B±→J/ψπ± and B±→J/ψK± decays are determined to be Aπ=0.01±0.22(stat)±0.01(syst) and AK =0.003±0.030(stat)±0.004(syst).