0000000000060884
AUTHOR
Lorenzo Foà
showing 34 related works from this author
Search for γγ→ηb in e+e− collisions at LEP 2
2002
A search for the pseudoscalar meson eta_b is performed in two-photon interactions at LEP~2 with an integrated luminosity of 699 pb^-1 collected at e+e- centre-of-mass energies from 181 GeV to 209 GeV. One candidate event is found in the six-charged-particle final state and none in the four-charged-particle final state, in agreement with the total expected background of about one event. Upper limits of Gamma_gammagamma(eta_b) * BR(eta_b -> 4 charged particles) 6 charged particles) < 132 eV are obtained at 95% confidence level, which correspond to 95% confidence level upper limits of 9.0% and 25% on these branching ratios.
Transverse momentum correlations in hadronic Z decays
1997
Using data obtained with the ALEPH detector at the Z resonance, a measure based on transverse momentum is shown to exhibit a correlation between the two halves of a hadronic event which cannot be explained by energy-momentum conservation, flavour conservation, the imposition of an event axis or imperfect event reconstruction. Two possible interpretations based on existing Monte Carlo models are examined: a) ARIADNE, with the correlation forming early in the parton shower and with the transition from partons to hadrons playing only a minor part; b) JETSET, with the correlation forming at the fragmentation stage. A correlation technique based on a jet cluster analysis is used to make a compar…
Search for $\gamma\gamma$ decays of a Higgs boson produced in association with a fermion pair in $e^+ e^-$ collisions at LEP
2000
A serach for gamma gamma decays of Higgs boson is performed in the data sample collected at LEP with the ALEPH detector between 1991 and 1999. This corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 672 pb-1 centre-of-mass energies ranging from 88 to 202 GeV. The search is based on topologies arising from a Higgs boson produced in association with a fermion pair via the Higgs-strahlung process e+e- -> Hffbar, with ffbar = nunubar, e+e-, mu+mu-, tau+tau- or qqbar... (CERN)
Searches for neutral Higgs bosons in e+e− collisions at centre-of-mass energies from 192 to 202 GeV
2000
Searches for neutral Higgs bosons are performed with the 237 pb-1 of data collected in 1999 by the ALEPH detector at LEP, for centre-of-mass energies between 191.6 and 201.6 GeV. These searches apply to Higgs bosons within the context of the Standard Model and its minimal supersymmetric extension (MSSM) as well as to invisibly decaying Higgs bosons. No evidence of a signal is seen. A lower limit on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson of 107.7 GeV/c2 at 95% confidence level is set. In the MSSM, lower limits of 91.2 and 91.6 GeV/c2 are derived for the masses of the neutral Higgs bosons h and A, respectively. For a Higgs boson decaying invisibly and produced with the Standard Model cros…
A flavour-independent Higgs boson search in e+e- collisions at sqrt(s) up to 209GeV
2002
A search for the Higgsstrahlung process e+e- → HZ is carried out, covering decays of the Higgs boson into any quark pair, a gluon pair or a tau pair. The analysis is based on the 630 pb-1 of data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV. A 95% C.L. lower mass limit of 109.1 GeV/c2 is obtained for a Higgs boson cross section equal to that expected from the Standard Model if the Higgs boson decays exclusively into hadrons and/or taus, irrespective of the relative branching fractions. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Inclusive production of neutral vector mesons in hadronic Z decays
1996
Data on the inclusive production of the neutral vector mesons rho(0)(770), omega(782), K*(0)(892), and phi (1020) in hadronic Z decays recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP are presented and compared to Monte Carlo model predictions. Bose-Einstein effects are found to be important in extracting a reliable value for the p(0) production rate. An average p(0) multiplicity of 1.45 +/- 0.21 per event is obtained. The omega is detected via its three pion decay mode omega --> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0) and has a total rate of 1.07 +/- 0.14 per event. The multiplicity of the K*(0) is 0.83 +/- 0.09, whilst that of the phi is 0.122 +/- 0.009, both measured using their charged decay modes. The measurements pro…
Measurement of W-pair production in $e^+ e^-$ collisions at 189 GeV
2000
The production of W-pairs is analysed in a data sample collected by ALEPH at a mean centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 174.2 pb^-1. Cross sections are given for different topologies of W decays into leptons or hadrons. Combining all final states and assuming Standard Model branching fractions, the total W-pair cross section is measured to be 15.71 +- 0.34 (stat) +- 0.18 (syst) pb. Using also the W-pair data samples collected by ALEPH at lower centre-of-mass energies, the decay branching fraction of the W boson into hadrons is measured to be BR (W > hadrons) = 66.97 +- 0.65 (stat) +- 0.32 (syst) %, allowing a determination of the CKM matrix el…
Measurements of the charged particle multiplicity distribution in restricted rapidity intervals
1995
Charged particle multiplicity distributions have been measured with the ALFPH detector in restricted rapidity intervals \Y\ less than or equal to 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 along the thrust axis and also without restriction on rapidity. The distribution for the full range can be parametrized by a log-normal distribution. For smaller windows one finds a more complicated structure, which is understood to arise from perturbative effects. The negative-binomial distribution fails to describe the data both with and without the restriction on rapidity. The JETSET model is found to describe all aspects of the data while the width predicted by HERWIG is in significant disagreement.
Measurement of the hadronic photon structure function at LEP 1 for 〈Q2〉 values between 9.9 and 284 GeV2
1999
Inclusive γ*γ interactions to hadronic final states where one scattered electron or positron is detected in the electromagnetic calorimeters have been studied in the LEP 1 data taken by ALEPH from 1991 to 1995. The event sample has been used to measure the hadronic structure function of the photon F2γ in three bins with of 9.9, 20.7 and 284 GeV2.
Study of D0– mixing and D0 doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decays
1998
Abstract Using a sample of four million hadronic Z events collected in ALEPH from 1991 to 1995, the decays D ∗+ → D 0 π s + , with D0 decaying to K−π+ or to K+π−, are studied. The relative branching ratio B(D0→K+π−)/B(D0→K−π+) is measured to be 1.84±0.59( stat. ) ±0.34( syst. ) %. The two possible contributions to the D0→K+π− decay, doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decays and D0– D 0 mixing, are disentangled by measuring the proper-time distribution of the reconstructed D0's. Assuming no interference between the two processes, the upper limit obtained on the mixing rate is 0.92% at 95% CL . The possible effect of interference between the two amplitudes is also assessed.
Fermion pair production in e+e- collisions at 189-209 GeV and constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model
2006
Cross sections, angular distributions and forward-backward asymmetries are presented, of two-fermion events produced in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV at LEP, measured with the ALEPH detector. Results for e+e-, mu+mu-, tau+tau-, qq, bb and cc production are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. Constraints are set on scenarios of new physics such as four-fermion contact interactions, leptoquarks, Z' bosons, TeV-scale quantum gravity and R-parity violating squarks and sneutrinos.
Improved search for $B_{s}^{0} - \overline{B}_{s}^{0}$ oscillations
2003
An improved search for Bs oscillations is performed in the ALEPH data sample collected during the first phase of LEP, and reprocessed in 1998. Three analyses based on complementary event selections are presented. First, decays of Bs mesons into hadronic flavour eigenstates are fully reconstructed. This selection yields a small sample of candidates with excellent decay length and momentum resolution and high average Bs purity. Semileptonic decays with a reconstructed Ds- meson provide a second sample with larger statistics, high average Bs purity, but a poorer momentum and decay length resolution due to the partial decay reconstruction. Finally, semileptonic b-hadron decays are inclusively s…
Search for charged Higgs bosons in $e^+ e^-$ collisions at energies up to $\sqrt{s}$ = 189 GeV
2000
The data collected at centre-of-mass energies of 188.6 GeV by ALEPH at LEP, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176.2 pb-1, are analysed in a search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons H+/-. Three analyses are employed to select the taunutaunu, taunucs and cscs final states. No evidence for a signal is found. Upper limits are set on the production cross section as a function of the branching fraction BR(H+ to tau nu) and of the mass M(H+), assuming that the sum of the branching ratios is equal to one. In the framework of a two-Higgs-doublet model, charged Higgs bosons with masses below 65.4 GeV/c2 are excluded at 95% confidence level independently of the decay mode.
First measurement of the quark-to-photon fragmentation function
1996
Earlier measurements at LEP of isolated hard photons in hadronic Z decays, attributed to radiation from primary quark pairs, have been extended in the ALEPH experiment to include hard photon production inside hadron jets. Events are selected where all particles combine democratically to form hadron jets, one of which contains a photon with a fractional energy z greater than or equal to 0.7. After statistical subtraction of non-prompt photons, the quark-to-photon fragmentation function, D(z), is extracted directly from the measured 2-jet rate. By taking into account the perturbative contributions to D(z) obtained from an O(alpha alpha(s)) QCD calculation, the unknown non-perturbative compone…
Production of orbitally excited charm mesons in semileptonic B decays
1997
A sample of 3.6 million hadronic Z decays recorded between 1991 and 1995 with the ALEPH detector at LEP is used to investigate semileptonic decays of B mesons into final states involving orbitally excited charm mesons. Topological vertex criteria are used to search for decays involving narrow D** states as well as wide D** resonances and non-resonant D(*)pi final states. The sum of the branching ratios for these processes is measured to be Br((B) over bar --> D pi l(-)(v) over bar) + Br((B) over bar --> D*pi l(-)(v) over bar) = (2.26 +/-t 0.29(stat) +/- 0.33(syst))%, which accounts for a significant fraction of the deficit between inclusive measurements and the sum of exclusive semileptonic…
Search for a scalar top almost degenerate with the lightest neutralino e(+)e(-) collisions at root s up to 202 GeV
2000
Data collected at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 202 GeV by the ALEPH detector at LEP corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 411 pb(-1), are analysed in a search for the scalar top in the decay channels (t) over tilde --> c/u chi for small mass differences between the stop and the lightest neutralino. No evidence for deviations from the Standard Model expectation is found and a lower limit of 59 GeV/c(2) is set for the stop mass, independent of the stop to neutralino mass difference and of the stop lifetime. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Improved measurement of theB 0 andB + meson lifetimes
1996
The lifetimes of the B 0 and B + mesons have been measured with the Aleph detector at LEP, using approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays collected in the period 1991 1994. In the first of three methods, semileptonic decays of B 0 and B + mesons were partially reconstructed by identifying events containing a lepton with an associated D*- orbar D^0 meson. The second method used fully reconstructed B 0 and B + mesons. The third method, used to measure the B 0 lifetime, employed a partial reconstruction technique to identify B 0→ D*- π + X decays. The combined results are begin{gathered} tau _0 = 1.55 ± 0.06 ± 0.03 ps, \ tau _ + = 1.58 ± 0.09 ± 0.03 ps, \ tfrac{{tau _ + }}{{tau _0 }} = 1.03 ±…
Production of excited beauty states in Z decays
1996
A data sample of about 3.0 million hadronicZ decays collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP in the years 1991 through 1994 is used to make an inclusive selection of B hadron events. In this event sample 4227±140±252B* mesons in the decayB*→Bγ and 1944±108±161B** u,d mesons decaying into a B meson and a charged pion are reconstructed. Here and in the followingB** u,d denotes the eightL=1(bū) and (bd) states and their charge conjugate. For the well establishedB* meson the following quantities are obtained:ΔM=M B*−MB=(45.30±0.35±0.87) MeV/c2 andN B*/(N B+N B*)=(77.1±2.6±7.0)%. The angular distribution of the photons in theB* rest frame is used to measure the relative contribution of longitudi…
The topology dependence of charged particle multiplicities in three-jet events
1997
A study of individual jet and whole-event charged particle multiplicities in three-jet events measured in e(+)e(-) annihilation at the Z reveals a significant topology dependence. Mean jet multiplicities are inadequately described by jet energies; interjet angles must also be specified. Quantitative tests suggest that it is necessary to use transverse-momentum-like scales to describe the data. RI ANTONELLI, ANTONELLA/C-6238-2011; Passalacqua, Luca/F-5127-2011; Murtas, Fabrizio/B-5729-2012; St.Denis, Richard/C-8997-2012; Sanchez, Federico/F-5809-2012; Forti, Francesco/H-3035-2011; Ferrante, Isidoro/F-1017-2012
Search forBs0→μ+μ−andB0→μ+μ−Decays with CDF II
2011
A search has been performed for B{sub s}{sup 0} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} and B{sup 0} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} decays using 7 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The observed number of B{sup 0} candidates is consistent with background-only expectations and yields an upper limit on the branching fraction of {Beta}(B{sup 0} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -}) < 6.0 x 10{sup -9} at 95% confidence level. We observe an excess of B{sub s}{sup 0} candidates. The probability that the background processes alone could produce such an excess or larger is 0.27%. The probability that the combination of background and the expe…
Determination of sin^2(theta(eff)(w)) using jet charge measurements in hadronic Z decays
1996
The electroweak mixing angle is determined with high precision from measurements of the mean difference between forward and backward hemisphere charges in hadronic decays of the Z. A data sample of 2.5 million hadronic Z decays recorded over the period 1990 to 1994 in the ALEPH detector at LEP is used. The mean charge separation between event hemispheres containing the original quark and antiquark is measured for b (b) over bar and c (c) over bar events in subsamples selected by their long lifetimes or using fast D*'s. The corresponding average charge separation for light quarks is measured in an inclusive sample from the anticorrelation between charges of opposite hemispheres and agrees wi…
Measurement of thett¯production cross section inpp¯collisions ats=1.96 TeVusing soft electronb-tagging
2010
The authors present a measurement of the t{bar t} production cross section using events with one charged lepton and jets from p{bar p} collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. A b-tagging algorithm based on the probability of displaced tracks coming from the event interaction vertex is applied to identify b quarks from top decay. Using 318 pb{sup -1} of data collected with the CDF II detector, they measure the t{bar t} production cross section in events with at least one restrictive (tight) b-tagged jet and obtain 8.9{sub -1.0}{sup +1.0}(stat.){sub -1.0}{sup +1.1}(syst.) pb. The cross section value assumes a top quark mass of m{sub t} is presented in the paper. This result is cons…
Search for pentaquarks states in Z decays
2004
Exotic hadrons made of five quarks (pentaquarks) are searched for in hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP. No significant signal is observed. At 95% C.L. upper limits are set on the production rates N of such particles and their charge-conjugate state per Z decay: N Θ(1535)+·BR(Θ(1535)+→pK S0)<6.2×10-4, N Ε(1862)-·BR(Ε(1862)-→Ε -π-)<4.5×10-4, N Ε(1862)0·BR(Ε(1862)0→Ε -π+)<8.9×10-4, N Θc(3100)0·BR(Θc(3100) 0→D*-p)<6.3×10-4, N Θc(3100)0·BR(Θc(3100) 0→D-p)<31×10-4. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Inclusive production of neutral pions in hadronic Z decays
1997
A measurement of the inclusive production of pi(0) mesons in hadronic Z decays is presented and compared to Monte Carlo model predictions. The analysis is based on approximately 2 million hadronic events recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 91.2 GeV. Neutral pions are reconstructed using photons measured in the electromagnetic calorimeter and photons from conversion pairs. The inclusive pi(0) momentum spectrum is measured in the range 0.025 < x(p) = p/p(beam) < 1. In this range the number of pi(0) per hadronic Z is found to be 4.80 +/- 0.07(stat) +/- 0.31(sys). The differential inclusive pi(0) cross section is also measured as a function of transver…
Fermi-Dirac correlations in Lambda pairs in hadronic Z decays
2000
Two-particle correlations of Lambda Lambda and pairs have been studied in multihadronic Z decays recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP in the years from 1992 to 1995. The correlations were measured as a function of the four-momentum difference Q of the pair. A depletion of events is observed in the region Q 2 GeV the fraction of pairs with spin one is consistent with the value of 0.75 expected for a statistical spin mixture, whilst for Q pairs, where no Fermi-Dirac correlations are expected, the spin one fraction is measured to be consistent with 0.75 over the entire analysed Q range. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Tau hadronic branching ratios
1996
From 64492 selected tau-pair events, produced at the Zeta(o) resonance, the measurement of the tau decays into hadrons from a global analysis using 1991, 1992 and 1993 ALEPH data is presented. Special emphasis is given to the reconstruction of photons and pi(o)'s, and the removal of fake photons. A detailed study of the systematics entering the pi(o) reconstruction is also given. A complete and consistent set of tau hadronic branching ratios is presented for 18 exclusive modes. Most measurements are more precise than the present world average. The new level of precision reached allows a stringent test of tau - mu universality in hadronic decays, g(tau)/g(mu) = 1.0013 +/- 0.0095, and the fir…
Search for γγ decays of a Higgs boson in e+e- collisions at √s up to 209 GeV
2002
A search for events with a photon pair arising from the decay of a Higgs boson produced in association with a fermion pair, is performed in 893 pb-1 of data recorded by the ALEPH detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. No excess of such events is found over the expected background, An upper limit is derived on the product of the e+e- → HZ cross section and the H → γγ branching fraction as a function of the Higgs boson mass. A fermiophobic Higgs boson produced with the Standard Model cross section is excluded at 95% confidence level for all masses below 105.4 GeV/c2. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Measurement ofD s + meson production inZ decays and of theB s 0 lifetime
1995
D + mesons produced inZ 0→bb events were separated from theZ 0→cc component using a lifetime tag. Using a sample of 1.5 million hadronicZ decays collected with theAleph detector theB 0 andD s + yields have been measured: $$\begin{gathered} \hfill B(b \to \bar B_s^0 )B(\bar B_s^0 \to D_s^ + ) = 0.088 \pm 0.020(stat.) \\ \hfill \pm 0.020(stat.) \\ \hfill B(c \to D_s^ + ) = 0.088 \pm 0.020(stat.)_{ - 0.016}^{ + 0.019} (syst.) \\ \end{gathered} $$ TheB 0 lifetime was measured in aB 0 enriched sample reconstructing the decay length from the vertex of theD + with a hadron from theB 0 decay. The result obtained is: $$\tau _{B_s } = 1.61_{ - 0.29}^{ + 0.30} (stat.)_{ - 0.016}^{ + 0.018} (syst.)$$ p…
Observation of the rare B(s)(0) + decay from the combined analysis of CMS and LHCb data.
2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence.-- et al.
A measurement of the QCD colour factors and a limit on the light gluino
1997
Using data collected from 1992 to 1995 with the ALEPH detector at LEP, a measurement of the colour factor ratios C-A/C-F and T-F/C-F and the strong coupling constant = C-F alpha(s), (M-Z)/(2 pi) has been performed by fitting theoretical predictions simultaneously to the measured differential two-jet rate and angular distributions in four-jet events. The result is found to be in excellent agreement with QCD. C-A/C-F = 2.20 +/- 0.09 (stat) +/- 0.13 (syst), T-F/C-F = 0.29 +/- 0.05 (stat) +/- 0.06 (syst). Fixing C-A/C-F and T-F/C-F to the QCD values permits a determination of alpha(s) (M-Z) and n(f), the number of active flavours. With this measurement the existence of a gluino with mass below …
Search for charginos nearly mass degenerate with the lightest neutralino in e+e− collisions at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV
2002
A search for charginos nearly mass degenerate with the lightest neutralino is performed with the data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP, at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 628 pb-1. The analysis is based on the detection of isolated and energetic initial state radiation photons, produced in association with chargino pairs whose decay products have little visible energy. The number of candidate events observed is in agreement with that expected from Standard Model background sources. These results are combined with those of other direct searches for charginos, and a lower limit of 88 GeV/c2 at 95 % confidence level is derived…
Exclusive production of pion and kaon meson pairs in two photon collisions at LEP
2003
Exclusive production of pi and K meson pairs in two photon collisions is measured with ALEPH data collected between 1992 and 2000. Cross-sections are presented as a function of cos theta* and invariant mass, for \ cos theta* \ < 0.6 and invariant masses between 2.0 and 6.0 GeV/c(2) (2.25 and 4.0 GeV/c(2)) for pions (kaons). The shape of the distributions are found to be well described by QCD predictions but the data have a significantly higher normalization. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Inclusive semileptonic branching ratios of b hadrons produced in Z decays
2001
A measurement of the inclusive semileptonic branching ratios of b hadrons produced in Z decay is presented, using four million hadronic events collected by the ALEPH detector from 1991 to 1995. Electrons and muons are selected opposite to b-tagged hemispheres. Two different methods are explored to distinguish the contributions from direct $\bl$ and cascade $\bcl$ decays to the total lepton yield. One is based on the lepton transverse momentum spectrum, the other makes use of the correlation between the charge of the lepton and charge estimators built from tracks in the opposite hemisphere of the event. The latter method reduces the dependence on the modelling of semileptonic b decays. The r…
Observation of an excess in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson at ALEPH
2000
A search has been performed for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the data sample collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP, at centre-of-mass energies up to 209GeV. An excess of 3sigma beyond the background expectation is found, consistent with the production of the Higgs boson with a mass near 114GeV/c2. Much of this excess is seen in the four-jet analyses, where three high purity events are selected.