skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Search for rare decays of the B$$0\atop{s}$$ meson with the DØ experiment

Thesis/Dissertation ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1369277· OSTI ID:1369277
 [1]
  1. Univ. of Zurich, Irchel (Switzerland)

This document presents the searches for the flavour-changing neutral current decays B$$0\atop{s}$$ → μ+μ- and B$$0\atop{s}$$s → φμ+μ- . A data set with integrated luminosity of 300 pb-1 of proton-antiproton collisions at √ s = 1 . 96 TeV collected with the DØ detector in Run II of the FERMILAB Tevatron collider is used. The former decay mode is particularly sensitive to supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. For the latter mode, a measurement of the branching ratio could validate the prediction of the Standard Model. In the absence of an apparent signal, a limit on the branching fraction B(B$$0\atop{s}$$ → μ+μ-) can be computed by normalising the upper limit on the number of events in the B$$0\atop{s}$$ signal region to the number of reconstructed B ± → J/ψ K ± events. An upper limit on the branching fraction of B(B$$0\atop{s}$$ → μ+ μ- ) ≤ 3.7 × 10-7 at a 95% CL is obtained. This limit can be used to constrain models beyond the Standard Model. In models where the lightest supersymmetric particle is considered to be a dark matter candidate the limit aids in restricting the dark matter scattering cross section on nucleons. For the decay B$$0\atop{s}$$ → φμ+μ- also no signal has been observed and an upper limit on the branching ratio normalised to B$$0\atop{s}$$ → J/ψ φ events of B$$0\atop{s}$$ B(B$$0\atop{s}$$ → φ μ+ μ-)/B(B$$0\atop{s}$$→J/ψφ) < 4 . 4 × 10-3 at a 95% CL is obtained. In addition, the rare decay B$$0\atop{s}$$ → ψ (2 S ) φ has been observed. To measure a branching ratio, the B$$0\atop{s}$$ → J/ψ φ mode was used for normalisation, while B± → ψ (2S) K± and B± → J/ψ K± modes were used as control samples. The relative branching ratio has been measured to be B(B$$0\atop{s}$$ → ψ (2S) φ)/ B(B$$0\atop{s}$$ → J/ψ φ ) = 0 . 58 ± 0 . 24 (stat) ± 0 . 09 (sys).

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1369277
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-THESIS-2005-56; 697275
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English