Energy-energy correlations in hadronic final states from Z0 decays

We have studied the energy-energy angular correlations in hadronic final states from Z0 decay using the DELPHI detector at LEP. From a comparison with Monte Carlo calculations based on the exact second order QCD matrix element and string fragmentation we find that Λ(5)/MS = 104-20 +25 (stat.)-20 +25(syst.)-00 +30(theor.) MeV, which corresponds to αs(91 GeV) = 0.106± 0.003 (stat.)±0.003(syst.)-0.000 +0.003(theor.). The theoretical error stems from different choices for the renormalization scale of αs. In the Monte Carlo simulation the scale of αs as well as the fragmentation parameters have been optimized to described reasonably well all aspects of multihadron production.

Search for Z0 decays to two leptons and a charged particle-antiparticle pair

Based on a sample equivalent to 365 000 hadronic Z0 decays, the search in DELPHI data for pairs of leptons accompanied by a pair of charged particles is described. A total of 11 events were found in the electron channel, 9 in the muon channel and 7 in the tau channel. Results on lepton pairs with a radiated photon are also presented. The data from all channels are compatible with the expectations from standard processes. However, one event was found in the tau channel with an unusually high mass of the charged particle pair.

Updated precision measurement of the average lifetime of B hadrons

The measurement of the average lifetime of B hadrons using inclusively reconstructed secondary vertices has been updated using both an improved processing of previous data and additional statistics from new data. This has reduced the statistical and systematic uncertainties and gives \tau_{\mathrm{B}} = 1.582 \pm 0.011\ \mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.027\ \mathrm{(syst.)}\ \mathrm{ps.} Combining this result with the previous result based on charged particle impact parameter distributions yields \tau_{\mathrm{B}} = 1.575 \pm 0.010\ \mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.026\ \mathrm{(syst.)}\ \mathrm{ps.}

Production of strange particles in the hadronic decays of the Z0

Abstract An analysis of the production of strange particles from the decays of the Z 0 boson into multihadronic final states is presented. The analysis is based on about 90 000 selected hadronic Z 0 decays collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP in 1990. K s 0 , K ∗± , Λ( Λ ) and Ξ − ( Ξ + ) have been identified by their characteristic decays. The measured production cross sections are compared with predictions of the Lund Monte Carlo tuned to data at PEP/PETRA energies.

Improved measurements of cross sections and asymmetries at the Z0 resonance

During the 1992 running period of the LEP e+e- collider, the DELPHI experiment accumulated approximately 24 pb-1 of data at the Z0 peak. The decays into hadrons and charged leptons have been analysed to give values for the cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries which are significantly improved with respect to those previously published by the DELPHI collaboration. Incorporating these new data, more precise values for the Z0 resonance parameters are obtained from model-independent fits. The results are interpreted within the framework of the Standard Model, yielding for the top quark mass m(t) = 157(-48)+36(expt.)-20(+19)(Higgs) GeV, and for the effective mixing angle sin2 …

A search for neutral higgs particles in Z$^0$ decays

Abstract The search in DELPHI data for neutral Higgs bosons is described. No candidate for the Standard Model Higgs is seen in Z0 decays to H 0 ν ν , H 0 μ + μ − or H0τ+τ− after selections that proved efficient for finding simulated H0. One remaining candidate for Z0 → H0e+e− is consistent with background. Together with our earlier studies, these results restrict the H0 mass to be above 38 GeV/c2 at the 95% confidence level. No signal is found for decays of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model neutral Higgs bosons to τ+τ−. Limits are obtained for their decays to produce four jets.

Search for the t and b' quarks in hadronic decays of the Z0 boson

We present a search for the third generation up type quark t and a possible fourth down type quark b' in hadronic Z0 decays observed in DELPHI at the LEP collider. For any scenario with a decay through the charged current or into a charged Higgs with a mass at least 6 GeV/c2 below the t and 3 GeVc2 below the b' mass, we set a lower limit for the t quark mass at 44.0 GeV/c2 and for the b' mass at 44.5 GeV/c2. For specific scenarios the mass limits are slightly higher, e.g. for charged current decays the limits are 44.5 and 45.0 GeV/c2 respectively, where all limits are given at a 95% confidence level. © 1990.

Performance of the DELPHI detector

DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton, Photon and Hadron Identification) is a detector for e(+)e(-) physics, designed to provide high granularity over a 4 pi solid angle, allowing an effective particle identification, It has been operating at the LEP (Large Electron-Positron) collider at CERN since 1989. This article reviews its performance.

Evidence for B$^{0}_{s}$ meson production in Z$^0$ decays

Seven unambiguous events out of a sample of 270 000 Z0 decays, contain in tile same jet a D(s) meson and a muon at large transverse momentum relative to the et axis. These events are direct evidence for B(s)0 meson production in hadronic Z0 decays. The production rate of these events, relative to all hadronic Z0 decays is ( 18 +/- 8) x 10(-5) this number including the relevant branching fractions of the B(s)0 and D(s). The value of the B(s)0 meson lifetime relative to the average B meson lifetime is measured to be 0.8 +/- 0.4.

Observation of orbitally excited B mesons

Experimental evidence for the existence of orbitally excited B meson states is presented in an analysis of the Bπ and B*π distribution of Q = m(B**) - m(B(*)) - m(π) using Z0decay data taken with the DELPHI detector at LEP. The mean Q-value of the decays B**→ B(*)π is measured to be 284 ± 5 (stat.) ± 15 (syst.) MeV/c2, and the Gaussian width of the signal is 79 ± 5 (stat.) ± 8 (syst.) MeV/c2. This signal can be described as a single resonance of mass m = 5732 ± 5 (stat.) ± 20 (syst.) MeV/c2and full width Γ = 145 ± 28 MeV/c2. The observed shape is also consistent with the production of several broad and narrow states as predicted by the quark model and partly observed in the D-…

Search for exclusive decays of the Lambda_b baryon and measurement of its mass

A search for fully reconstructed \lb beauty baryons is performed using about 3 million Z decays collected with the DELPHI detector at LEP. The analysis relies on the combined use of the accurate tracking and of the hadron identification capabilities of DELPHI. A total of four events has been found, three in the \lc\ppm channel and one in the \lc\a1m channel over a small background. The \lb beauty baryon mass is measured to be (~ 5668 \pm 16~ ({\rm stat.}) \pm 8~({\rm syst.})~)~ \mv.

A Measurement of the Bbbar Forward-backward Asymmetry Using the Semileptonic Decay Into Muons

Measurement of inclusive K*(0)(892), phi(1020) and K-2*(0)(1430) production in hadronic Z decays

The inclusive production of the neutral vector mesons K-*0(892) and phi(1020), and of the tensor meson K-2(*0)(1430), in hadronic decays of the Z has been mea sured by the DELPHI detector at LEP. The average production rates per hadronic Z decay have been determined to be 0.77 +/- 0.08 K-2(*0)(892), 0.104 +/- 0.008 phi(1020) and 0.079 +/- 0.040 K-2(*0)(1430). The ratio of the tensor-to-vector meson production yields, [K-2(*0)(1430)]/[K-*0(892)] = 0.10 +/- 0.05, is smaller than the [f(2)(1270)]/[rho(0)(770)] and [f'(2)(1525)]/[phi(1020)] ratios measured by DELPHI. The production rates and differential cross sections are compared with the predictions of JETSET 7.4 tuned to the DELPHI data and…

Search for pair production of heavy objects in 4-jet events at sqrt {s}$=130-136 GeV

Results are presented of a search for pair production of heavy objects decaying into four hadronic jets, as expected for example from associated or pair production of MSSM Higgs bosons, hA or H$^+$H$^-$, using a data sample of $5.9\,$pb$^{-1}$ of $e^+ e^-$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=130$-$136\,{\mathrm {GeV}}$ collected with the DELPHI detector at LEP in November 1995. The data and expectations from standard processes agree after four-jet selections. An analysis based on $b$-tagging finds no hA candidate with high mass. A study optimized to search for H$^+$H$^-$ events with mass in the 40-50$\,{\mathrm{GeV}}/c^2$ range also finds no candidate. Finally a comparison is made with a recent ALEPH a…

Lifetime of Charged and Neutral B-hadrons Using Event Topology

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 \PZz decays yielded 1817 B hadron candidates. The B purity was estimated to be around 99.1\pm0.3\%, 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 \TAUBC\pm\ERRBC\;(stat.)\pm\SYSBC\;(syst.)~ps and \TAUBN\pm\ERRBN\;(stat.)\pm\SYSBN\;(syst…

Search for neutral and charged Higgs bosons in $e^+ e^-$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$= 161 GeV and 172 GeV

A search for neutral and charged Higgs bosons has been performed in the data collected by the {\sc DELPHI} detector at centre-of-mass energies of 161~GeV and 172~GeV. The analysis assumes either the pair-production of charged Higgs bosons, ${\mathrm H}^{\pm}$, or the production of the lightest neutral Higgs boson, h, with either a Z or a neutral pseudoscalar Higgs boson, A. All final state topologies expected from the decay of h and A %neutral Higgs particles into hadrons or a pair of $\tau$ leptons, and from the decay of ${\mathrm H}^{\pm}$ %charged Higgs bosons into a pair of quarks or a $\tau \nu_{\tau}$ pair have been considered. %In the case of the associated production with a Z boson,…

Measurement of trilinear gauge boson couplings WWV, (V Z,gamma) in e(+)e(-) collisions at 189 GeV

Measurements of the trilinear gauge boson couplings WWgamma and WWZ are presented using the data taken by DELPHI in 1998 at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV and combined with DELPHI data at 183 GeV. Values are determined for Delta(g_1^Z) and Delta(kappa_gamma), the differences of the WWZ charge coupling and of the WWgamma dipole coupling from their Standard Model values, and for lambda_gamma, the WWgamma quadrupole coupling. A measurement of the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moment of the W is extracted from the results for Delta(kappa_gamma) and lambda_gamma. The study uses data from the final states jjlv, jjjj, lX, jjX and gammaX, where j represents a quark jet, l an identifie…

A measurement of the mean lifetimes of charged and neutral B-hadrons

The decays of B-hadrons have been reconstructed using the charged particles recorded in the DELPHI silicon microstrip detector. The sum of the charges of the secondaries determines the charge of the B-hadron parent. Some 232 114 multihadronic Z0 decays recorded during the 1991 run of LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 88.2 GeV and 94.2 GeV yield 253 B-hadron candidates with well-measured charge. From these the mean lifetimes of neutral and charged B-hadrons are found to be 1.44 +/- 0.21(stat.) +/- 0.14(syst.) ps and 1.56 +/- 0.19(stat.) +/- 0.13(syst.) ps respectively. The ratio of their lifetimes is 1.09(-0.23)+0.28 (Stat.) +/- 0.11 (syst.). Under some assumptions on the abundance and …

Measurement of the Z$^0$ branching fraction to b quark pairs using the boosted sphericity product

Abstract From a sample of about 120 000 hadronic Z 0 decays, using a technique based on a separation of the different event categories in the boosted sphericity product, the fraction of b b decays has been measured to be 0.219 ± 0.014 (stat)± 0.019 (syst). Using the DELPHI determination of the hadronic Z 0 width, this corresponds to a partial width τ b b = 378 ± 42 MeV (in good agreement with the standard model prediction of ∼-380 MeV). Combining this measurement with the determinations based on events with high p t leptons gives an estimate for the branching ratio of b into leptons at LEP of (11.2 ± 1.2)%, consistent with previous determinations.

Searches for heavy neutrinos from Z decays

We have searched for possible fourth family heavy neutrinos, pair produced in Z0 decays, in a sample of about 112 000 hadronic Z0 final states collected with the DELPHI detector. For all mixing matrix elements we exclude a new Dirac neutrino lighter than 44.5 GeV at a 95% confidence level, if the neutrino couples to the electron or muon family, and lighter than 44.0 GeV, if the neutrino couples to the tau family. Depending on the values of the mixing element and to which lepton family the neutrino couples, we obtain mass limits up to 46.2 GeV. For all mixing matrix elements we exclude a new Majorana neutrino lighter than 39.0 GeV, if it couples to the electron or the muon family, and lighte…

A measurement of αs from the scaling violation in e+e- annihilation

The hadronic fragmentation functions of the various quark flavours and of gluons are measured in a study of the inclusive hadron production from $\zz$ decays with the DELPHI detector and are compared with the fragmentation functions measured elsewhere at energies between 14 GeV and 91 GeV. A large scaling violation is observed, which is used to extract the strong coupling constant from a fit using a numerical integration of the second order DGLAP evolution equations. The result is \begin{displaymath} \alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.124^{+0.006}_{-0.007}(exp)\pm 0.009 (theory) \end{displaymath} where the first error represents the experimental uncertainty and the second error is due to the factorization a…

Search for pair production of neutral Higgs bosons in Z$^0$ decays

The pair production of the lightest scalar Higgs boson, h, and a pseudoscalar Higgs boson, A, was searched for in a data sample containing 10 000 hadronic Z0 decays. The search involved both leptonic and purely hadronic decay channels of each Higgs boson. No signal was found, and limits on the Higgs boson masses, in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, ar reported up to 35 GeV/c2 at 95% CL, for both tan β > 1 and tan β < 1, where tan β is the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets.

Measurement of the transverse spin correlation in Z → τ+ τ- decays

The measurement of the correlation between the transverse spin components of tau(+)tau(-) pairs collected during 1992 to 1994 with the DELPHI detector at LEP1 is presented. A value C-TT = 0.87 +/- 0.20 (stat.)(-0.12)(+0.10) (syst.) was obtained for the correlation parameter, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Multiplicity fluctuations in hadronic final states from the decay of the Z0

An analysis of the fluctuations in the phase space distribution of hadrons produced in the decay of 78829 Z0 has been carried out, using the method of factorial moments. The high statistics collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP during 1990 allowed studies of the event sample both globally and in intervals of p(t) and multiplicity, and for different jet topologies and for single jets. A large contribution to the factorial moments of the one-dimensional data on rapidity with respect to the event axis comes from hard gluons. Details of factorial moments in two and three dimensions are presented. Influences of resonance decays have been studied by Monte Carlo simulation: one-dimensional fac…

Measurement of the spin density matrix for the rho(0), K*(0)(892) and phi produced in Z(0) decays

The spin density matrix elements for the rho(0), K-*0(892) and phi produced in hadronic Z(0) decays are measured in the DELPHI detector. There is no evidence for spin alignment of the K-*0(892) and phi, in the region x(p) less than or equal to 0.3 (x(p) = p/p(beam)), where rho(00) = 0.33 +/- 0.05 and rho(00) = 0.30 +/- 0.04, respectively. In the fragmentation region, x(p) greater than or equal to 0.4, there is some indication for spin alignment of the rho(0) and K-*0(892), since rho(00) = 0.43 +/- 0.05 and rho(00) = 0.46 +/- 0.08, respectively. These values are compared with those found in meson-induced hadronic reactions. For the phi, rho(00) = 0.30 +/- 0.04 for x(p) greater than or equal …

Classification of the hadronic decays of the Z$^0$ into b and c quark pairs using a neural network

A classifier based on a feed-forward neural network has been used for separating a sample of about 123 500 selected hadronic decays of the Z 0 , collected by DELPHI during 1991, into three classes according to the flavour of the original quark pair: u u +d d +s s (unresolved), c c and b b . The classification has been used to compute the partial widths of the Z 0 into b and c quark pairs. This gave Γ c c /Γ h = 0.151 ± 0.008 ( stat. ) ± 0.041 ( syst. ) , Γ b b /Γ h = 0.232±0.005 ( stat. )±0.017 ( syst. ) .

Experimental study of the triple-gluon vertex

Abstract In four-jet events from e+e− →Z0 →multihadrons one can separate the three principal contributions from the triple-gluon vertex, double gluon-bremsstrahlung and the secondary quark-antiquark production, using the shape of the two-dimensional angular distributions in the generalized Nachtmann-Reiter angle θ NR ∗ and the opening angle of the secondary jets. Thus one can identify directly the contribution from the triple-gluon vertex without comparison with a specific non-QCD model. Applying this new method to events taken with the DELPHI-detector we get for the ratio of the colour factor Nc to the fermionic Casimir operator C F : N c C F = 2.55 ± 0.55 ( stat. ) ± 0.4 ( fragm. + models…

Limits on the production of scalar leptoquarks from $Z^0$ decays at LEP

A search has been made for pairs and for single production of scalar leptoquarks of the first and second generations using a data sample of 392000 Z0 decays from the DELPHI detector at LEP 1. No signal was found and limits on the leptoquark mass, production cross section and branching ratio were set. A mass limit at 95% confidence level of 45.5 GeV/c2 was obtained for leptoquark pair production. The search for the production of a single leptoquark probed the mass region above this limit and its results exclude first and second generation leptoquarks D0 with masses below 65 GeV/c2 and 73 GeV/c2 respectively, at 95% confidence level, assuming that the D0lq Yukawa coupling alpha(lambda) is equ…

A Measurement of Sin2-theta-w From the Charge Asymmetry of Hadronic Events At the Z0 Peak

Abstract View references (24)The weak mixing angle has been measured from the charge asymmetry of hadronic events with two different approaches using the DELPHI detector at LEP. Both methods are based on a momentum-weighted charge sum to determine the jet charge in both event hemispheres. In a data sample of 247 300 multihadronic Z0 decays a charge asymmetry of 〈QF〉 - 〈QB〉 = -0.0076±0.0012(stat.)±0.0005(exp. syst.)±0.0014(frag.) and a raw forward-backward asymmetry of Araw FB = -0.0109±0.0020(stat.)±0.0010(exp. syst.)±0.0017(frag.) have been measured. This result corresponds to a value of sinθeff=0.2345±0.0030(exp.)±0.0027(frag.) ,sin2θMS=0.2341±0.0030(exp.)±0. 0027(frag.) and to sin2θW=1-m…

Determination of 55-155-155-1in second order QCD from hadronic Z decays

Distributions of event shape variables obtained from 120600 hadronic Z decays measured with the DELPHI detector are compared to the predictions of QCD based event generators. Values of the strong coupling constant αs are derived as a function of the renormalization scale from a quantitative analysis of eight hadronic distributions. The final result, αs(MZ), is based on second order perturbation theory and uses two hadronization corrections, one computed with a parton shower model and the other with a QCD matrix element model. © 1992 Springer-Verlag.

A measurement of the photon structure function F-2(gamma) at an average Q(2) of 12 GeV2/c(4)

The hadronic photon structure function F_{2}^{gamma} has been measured in the Q^{2} range from 4 to 30~GeV^2/c^{4} and down to x values of order 0.001, using data taken with the DELPHI detector at LEP between 1991 and 1993. A comparison is made with several F_{2}^{gamma} parameterizations with special emphasis on their low x behaviour. A result on the Q^{2} evolution of F_{2}^{gamma} is presented.