Guy Wilkinson

Abstract:

The lifetimes of charged and neutral B hadrons have been measured using data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP between 1991 and 1993. B hadrons are tagged as jets with a secondary vertex and the charge of the B candidate is taken to be the sum of the charges of the particles in the secondary vertex. Approximately 1,434,000 multihadronic Z0 decays yielded 1817 B hadron candidates. The B purity was estimated to be around 99.1±0.3%, and 83% (70%) of the events measured as neutral (charged) came from neutral (charged) B's. The mean lifetimes of charged and neutral B hadrons were found to be 1.72±0.08 (stat.) ±0.06 (syst.) ps and 1.58±0.11 (stat.)±0.09 (syst.) ps respectively. The ratio of their lifertimes, τcharged/τneutral, was 1.09-0.10+0.11 (stat.)±0.08 (syst.). By making assumptions about the Bs0 and Λb0 states, the B+ and B0 meson lifetimes were determined to be τB+ = 1.72 ± 0.08 (stat.) ±0.06 (syst.) ps and τB+ = 1.63 ± 0.14 (stat.)±0.13 (syst.) ps and the ratio of their lifetimes was: τB+/τB0 = 1.06-0.11+0.13 ±0.10. The mean B lifetime was also deduced to be < τ > = 1.64 ±0.06 (stat.)±0.04 (syst.) ps. © 1995 Springer-Verlag.

Abstract:

The partial decay width of the Z to {Mathematical expression} quark pairs has been measured by the DELPHI detector at LEP. b-hadrons, containing b-quarks, were tagged by leptons with high transverse momentum relative to the hadron or by tracks with large impact parameters to the primary vertex. The ratio of the numbers of events with a single such tag to those with two tags was used to estimate the efficiency of the method and to reduce the systematic uncertainty. Combining all methods, the value: {Mathematical expression} was found, where the third error corresponds to a±8% uncertainty on the {Mathematical expression} production width. A maximum likelihood in to the single and di-lepton distributions gave the branching fraction of the decays of b-quarks to leptons as: {Mathematical expression} © 1995 Springer-Verlag.

Abstract:

Charmless hadronic decays of beauty mesons have been searched for using the data collected with the DELPHI detector at the LEP collider. Several two, three and four-body decay modes have been investigated. Particle identification was used to distinguish the final states with protons, kaons and pions. Three candidate events selected in two-body decay modes are interpreted as evidence for charmless B decays. No excess has been found in higher multiplicity modes and improved upper limits for some of the branching ratios are given. © 1995.

Abstract:

Measurements are presented of short range three-particle correlations in e+e- annihilations at LEP using data collected by the DELPHI detector. At small values of the four-momentum difference, strong three-particle correlations are observed for like-sign (+++ and ---) and for unlike-sign (++- and +--) pion combinations which are not a consequence of two-particle correlations. A possible explanation of the observed effects in like-sign combinations is the existence of higher order Bose-Einstein interference, which significantly changes the particle distributions in jets. © 1995.

Abstract:

This analysis, based on a sample of 170000 hadronic Z0 decays, provides a measurement of the K± and p/p differential cross sections which is compared to string- and cluster fragmentation models. The total multiplicities for K± and p/p per hadronic event were found to be: NK = 2.26 ± 0.18 and Np = 1.07 ± 0.14. The positions ξ* of the maxima of the differential cross sections as a function of ξ = ln(1/xp) for K± and p/p were determined to be 2.63 ± 0.07 and 2.96 ± 0.16 respectively. A comparison of the ξ* values for various identified particles measured at LEP with the prediction of the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation with Local Parton Hadron Duality model has been performed. The measured ξ* position as a function of the hadron mass, after corrections due to particle decays, is in agreement with the model calculation. © 1995.