Systematic study of the decays of charmed D mesons

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5572120

Hauser, J

A large sample of D mesons, produced by the decay of the phi(3770) and observed by the Mark III detector at SPEAR, forms the basis for a study of the decays of charmed D/sup +/ and D/sup 0/ mesons. Many Cabibbo-allowed and Cabibbo-suppressed decays are observed. When normalized by a new, absolute technique, the branching ratios appear significantly higher than those reported by previous experiments. No evidence is found for specific final states from D/sup 0/ decay which are indicative of non-spectator W-exchange diagrams: limits are quoted. Finally, the inclusive semileptonic branching fractions of charged and neutral D mesons are measured by observation of electrons in the recoil from fully reconstructed hadronic D decays of known charm. By neglecting the contribution of Cabibbo-suppressed decays to the total decay widths, the ratio of these branching fractions can be interpreted as the ratio of D/sup +/ and D/sup 0/ lifetimes, thus confirming the inequality of lifetimes observed by direct decay length experiments. The observed pattern of hadronic decays appears to favor modification of the spectator model over non-spectator processes as the main source of the lifetime difference.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5572120
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645102* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Experimental-- Weak Interactions & Properties
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BOSONS
BRANCHING RATIO
CHARM PARTICLES
CHARMED MESONS
D MESONS
DATA
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HADRONS
INFORMATION
LIFETIME
MESONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PARTICLE WIDTHS
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
SEMILEPTONIC DECAY
SPEAR
STORAGE RINGS
WEAK HADRONIC DECAY
WEAK PARTICLE DECAY