A MEASUREMENT OF THE LIFETIME AND MIXING FREQUENCY OF NEUTRAL B MESONS WITH SEMILEPTONIC DECAYS IN THE BABAR DETECTOR
The neutral B meson, consisting of a b quark and an anti-d quark, can mix (oscillate) to its own anti-particle through second-order weak interactions. The measurement of the mixing frequency can constrain the quark mixing matrix in the Standard Model of particle physics. The PEP-II B-factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center provides a very large data sample that enables us to make measurements with much higher precisions than previous measurements, and to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The lifetime of the neutral B meson {tau}{sub B0} and the B{sup 0}-{bar B}{sup 0} mixing frequency {Delta}m{sub d} are measured with a sample of approximately 14,000 exclusively reconstructed B{sup 0} {yields} D*{sup -} {ell}{sup +}{nu}{sub {ell}} signal events, selected from 23 million B{bar B} pairs recorded at the {Upsilon}(4S)resonance with the BABAR detector at the asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collider, PEP-II. The decay position of the exclusively reconstructed B is determined by the charged tracks in the final state, and its b-quark flavor at the time of decay is known unambiguously from the charge of the lepton. The decay position of the other B is determined inclusively, and its b-quark flavor at the time of decay is determined (tagged) with the charge of tracks in the final state, where identified leptons or kaons give the most information. The decay time difference of two B mesons in the event is calculated from the distance between their decay vertices and the Lorentz boost of the center of mass. Additional samples of approximately 50,000 events are selected for studies of background events. The lifetime and mixing frequency, along with wrong-tag probabilities and the time-difference resolution function, are measured simultaneously with an unbinned maximum-likelihood fit that uses, for each event, the measured difference in B decay times ({Delta}t), the calculated uncertainty on {Delta}t, the signal and background probabilities, and b-quark tagging for the other B meson. The results are {tau}{sub B{sup 0}} = (1.523{sub -0.023}{sup +0.024} {+-} 0.022) ps and {Delta}m{sub d} = (0.492 {+-} 0.018 {+-} 0.013) ps{sup -1}, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The statistical correlation coefficient between {tau}{sub B{sup 0}} and {Delta}m{sub d} is -0.22. This result is consistent with the current world average values, the total errors are comparable with other most-precise measurements.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 815739
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-R-645; TRN: US0304779
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 29 Aug 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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