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Title: Measurement of the Inclusive B-Lifetime Using $$\rm {J/\psi}$$'s at the CDF Experiment

Thesis/Dissertation ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/992647· OSTI ID:992647

This dissertation describes the measurement of the average B hadron lifetime using a high statistics sample of B → J/ΨX decays produced in p$$\bar{p}$$ collisions at a center of mass energy of √s = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The integrated luminosity of the sample is 10.1 pb-1 recorded with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). In this analysis the decay vertex of the decay J/Ψ → μ+μ- as reconstructed by a silicon vertex detector is used to extract the lifetime from the data. This measurement is the average over all b-hadrons produced weighted by the product of their branching ratios into J/Ψ and their production cross sections. We find the following value for the average b hadron lifetime: τB = 1.46 ± 0.06(stat.) ± 0.06(syst.) ps. This is the first measurement of the b-hadron lifetime at a hadron collider. It demonstrates that it is possible to access the large b-quark production cross section in p$$\bar{p}$$ collisions and to achieve high statistics even in modes which have small product branching ratios as in this case: BR(B → J/ΨX) • BR(J/Ψ → μ+μ-) = 7.7 x 10-4.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
992647
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-THESIS-1993-67; TRN: US201023%%157
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English