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Title: Inclusive and exclusive semileptonic decays of B mesons to D mesons

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:5317579

Using the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), the author has made the first measurements of the exclusive semileptonic branching fractions of B{sup {minus}} mesons to the charmed final states D{sup 0} and D{sup {asterisk}0}. He has confirmed the observation of the decay {bar B}{sup 0} {yields} D{sup +}{ell}{sup {minus}}{bar {nu}} and has measured the branching fraction. These results yield the ratio of vector to pseudoscalar widths {Gamma}{sub SL}(D{sup {asterisk}})/{Gamma}{sub SL}(D) = 2.6{sub {minus}0.6}{sup +1.1}{sub {minus}0.8}{sup +1.0}. Further, he finds the lifetime ratio for charged to neutral B mesons {tau}(B{sup {minus}})/{tau}(B{sup 0}) to be (0.89 {plus minus} 0.19 {plus minus} 0.13) (f00/F+{minus}). Using theoretical models, he extracts a measurement of the KM matrix element {vert bar}{sub cb}{vert bar} = 0.040 {plus minus} 0.006 {plus minus} 0.003 {plus minus} 0.004. He also finds that the sum of the exclusive semileptonic branching fractions to pseudoscalar and vector meson final states only accounts for (64 {plus minus} 10)% of the total semileptonic branching fraction to charmed final states.

Research Organization:
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
OSTI ID:
5317579
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English