0000000001006618

AUTHOR

G Sette

DETERMINATION OF ALPHA(S) FOR B-QUARKS AT THE Z(0) RESONANCE

The strong coupling constant for b quarks has been determined, and its flavour independence, as predicted by QCD, investigated. The analysis involved events with lepton candidates selected from approximately 356 000 hadronic decays of the Z0, collected by the DELPHI detector at LEP in 1990 and 199 1. A method based on a direct comparison of the three-jet fraction in a b enriched sample, selected by requiring leptons with large momenta and transverse momenta, to that of the entire hadronic sample, illustrated the significant effect of the b quark mass on the multi-jet cross section, and verified the flavour independence of the strong coupling constant to an accuracy of +/- 6%. A second proce…

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DETERMINATION OF ALPHA-S FROM THE SCALING VIOLATION IN THE FRAGMENTATION FUNCTIONS IN E+E- ANNIHILATION

A determination of the hadronic fragmentation functions of the Z0 boson is presented from a study of the inclusive hadron production with the DELPHI detector at LEP. These fragmentation functions were compared with the ones at lower energies, thus covering data in a large kinematic range: 196 less-than-or-equal-to Q2 less-than-or-equal-to 8312 GeV2 and x (= p(h)/E(beam)) > 0.08. A large scaling violation was observed, which was used to extract the strong coupling constant in second order QCD: alpha(s)(M(Z)) = 0.118 +/- 0.005. The corresponding QCD scale for five quark flavours is: LAMBDA(MS)(5)BAR = 230 +/- 60 MeV.

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W pair production cross-section and W branching fractions in $e^{+}e^{-}$ interactions at 189 GeV

The cross-section for the process e+e- -> W+W- has been measured with the data sample collected by DELPHI at an average centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb^{-1}. Based on the 2392 events selected as WW candidates, the cross-section for the doubly resonant process e+e- -> W+W- has been measured to be 15.83 +- 0.38 (stat) +- 0.20 (syst) pb. The branching fractions of the W decay were also measured and found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation. From these a value of the CKM mixing matrix element |V_{cs}| = 1.001 +- 0.040 (stat) +- 0.020 (syst) was derived.

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Update of the search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with Gravitino LSP and Sleptons NLSP

An update of the search for sleptons, neutralinos and charginos in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino and the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle is a slepton, is presented, together with the update of the search for heavy stable charged particles in light gravitino scenarios and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Models. Data collected in 1999 with the DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies around 192, 196, 200 and 202 GeV were analysed. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, new mass limits were derived at 95% confidence level.

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Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson at LEP in the year 2000

Searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson have been performed in the data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP in the year 2000 at centre-of-mass energies between 200 and 209 GeV corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 224 pb^{-1}. No evidence for a Higgs signal is observed in the kinematically accessible mass range, and a 95% CL lower mass limit of 114.3 GeV/c^2 is set, to be compared with an expected median limit of 113.5 GeV/c^2 for these data.

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Measurement of the ZZ cross-section in e(+)e(-) interactions at 183-189 GeV

Measurements of on-shell ZZ production are described, using data collected by DELPHI in 1997 and 1998, at centre-of-mass energies sqrt(s) = 182.6 GeV and 188.6 GeV respectively. Results obtained in each of the final states q qbar q qbar, mu+mu- q qbar, e+e- q qbar, nu nubar q qbar, l+l-l+l-, and nu nubar l+l- are presented. The measured cross-sections for on-shell ZZ production via the tree-level doubly-resonant graphs (NC02) are: sigma_{NC02}(182.6 GeV) = 0.38 +- 0.18 (stat) +- 0.04 (syst) pb, sigma_{NC02}(188.6 GeV) = 0.60 +- 0.13 (stat) +- 0.07 (syst) pb. They are consistent with the Standard Model expectations of 0.25 pb and 0.65 pb at each energy.

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Measurement of the semileptonic b branching fractions and average b mixing parameter in Z decays

The semileptonic branching fractions for primary and cascade b decays BR(b -> lepton-), BR(b -> c -> lepton+) and BR(b -> cbar -> lepton-) were measured in hadronic Z decays collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP. The sample was enriched in b decays using the lifetime information and various techniques were used to separate leptons from direct or cascade b decays. By fitting the momentum spectra of di-leptons in opposite jets, the average b mixing parameter chi-bar was also extracted. The following results have been obtained: BR(b -> lepton-) = (10.70 +/- 0.08 (stat) +/- 0.21 (syst)_{+0.44}^{-0.30}(model))% BR(b -> c -> lepton+) = (7.98 +/- 0.22 (stat) +/- 0.21 (s…

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Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP Energies of 183 and 189 GeV

An analysis of the data collected in 1997 and 1998 with the DELPHI detector at e+e- collision energies close to 183 and 189 GeV was performed in order to extract the hadronic and leptonic fermion-pair cross-sections, as well as the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries and angular distributions. The data are used to put limit on contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of R-parity violating SUSY sneutrinos, Z' bosons and the existence of gravity in extra dimensions.

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