A Measurement of B Meson Production and Lifetime Using D`− Events in Z0 Decays

A study of B meson decays into D l- X final states is presented. In these events, neutral and charged D mesons originate predominantly from B+ and B0 decays, respectively. The dilution of this correlation due to D** production has been taken into account. From 263700 hadronic Z0 decays collected in 1991 with the DELPHI detector at the LEP collider, 92 D0 --> K- pi+, 35 D+ --> K- pi+ pi+ and 61 D*+ --> D0 pi+ followed by D0 --> K- pi+ or D0 --> K- pi+ pi+ pi-, are found with an associated lepton of the same charge as the kaon. From the D0 l- and D*+ l-, the probability f(d) that a b quark hadronizes into a B- (or B0BAR),meson is found to be 0.44 +/-0.08 +/-0.09, corresponding to a total (B(s) + LAMBDA(b)) hadronization fraction of 0.12(-0.12)+0.24 .By reconstructing the energy of each B meson, the b quark fragmentation is directly measured for the first time. The mean value of the B meson energy fraction is: [X(E)(B)] = 0.695+/-0.015(stat.)+/-0.029(syst.) Reconstructing D-lepton vertices, the following B life-times are measured: tau(B) = 1.27(-0.18)+0.22(stat.)+/-0.15(syst.) ps, where bBAR --> D0 l- X, tau(B) = 1.18(-0.27)+0.39(stat.)+/-0.15(syst.) ps, where BBAR --> D+ l- X, T(B) = 1.19(-0.19)+0.25(stat.)+/-0.15(syst.) ps where BBAR --> D*+ l- X, and an average tau(B) = 1.23(-0.13)+0.14(stat.)+/-0.15(syst.) ps is found. Allowing for decays into D** l- vBAR, the B+ and B0 lifetimes are: tau(B+)= 1.30(0.29)+0.33(stat.)+/-0.15(syst. exp.) +/-0.05(syst. D**) ps, tau(B0)= 1.17(-0.23)+0.29(stat.)+/-0.15(syst. exp.) +/-0.05 (syst. D**) ps, tau(B+)/tau(B0) = 1.11(0.39)+0.51(stat.)+/-0.05(syst. exp.) +/-0.10(syst. D**) ps

Measurement of the triple-gluon vertex from 4-JET events at LEP

From the combined data of 1990 and 1991 of the DELPHI experiment at LEP, 13057 4-jet events are obtained and used for determining the contribution of the triple-gluon vertex. The relevant variables are the generalized Nachtmann Reiter angle theta(NR)* and the opening angle of the two least energetic jets. A fit to their two-dimensional distribution yields C(A)/C(F)=2.12+/-0.35 and N(C)/N(A)=0.46+/-0.19, where C(A)/C(F) is the ratio of the coupling strength of the triple-gluon vertex to that of gluon bremsstrahlung from quarks, and N(C)/N(A), the ratio of the number of quark colours to the number of gluons. This constitutes a convincing model-independent proof of the existence of the triple-gluon vertex, since its contribution is directly proportional to C(A)/C(F). The results are in agreement with the values expected from QCD: C(A)/C(F)=2.25, and N(C)/N(A)=3/8

Limits on the production of scalar leptoquarks from Z (0) decays at LEP

A search has been made for pairs and for single production of scalar leptoquarks of the first and second generations using a data sample of 392000 Z0 decays from the DELPHI detector at LEP 1. No signal was found and limits on the leptoquark mass, production cross section and branching ratio were set. A mass limit at 95% confidence level of 45.5 GeV/c2 was obtained for leptoquark pair production. The search for the production of a single leptoquark probed the mass region above this limit and its results exclude first and second generation leptoquarks D0 with masses below 65 GeV/c2 and 73 GeV/c2 respectively, at 95% confidence level, assuming that the D0lq Yukawa coupling alpha(lambda) is equal to the electromagnetic one. An upper limit is also given on the coupling alpha(lambda) as a function of the leptoquark mass m(D0)

Beam test performance of the APV5 chip

The performance of the latest prototype of the radiation hard front end chip to be used by the CMS collaboration for analogue readout of the microstrip tracker has been evaluated with a silicon microstrip detector in a beam at CERN. The circuit, developed by the RD20 collaboration, consists of 128 channels of amplifier, pipeline memory, analogue signal processor and a serial multiplexer. As a result of these studies improvements in the circuit design have been devised which will be implemented in the next version

Determination of alpha(s) using the next-to-leading-log approximation of QCD

A new measurement of alpha(s), is obtained from the distributions in thrust, heavy jet mass, energy-energy correlation and two recently introduced jet broadening variables following a method proposed by Catani, Trentadue, Turnock and Webber. This method includes the full calculation of O(alpha(s)2) terms and leading and next-to-leading logarithms resummed to all orders of alpha(s). The analysis is based on data taken with the DELPHI detector at LEP during 1991. I its found that the inclusion of the resummed leading and next-to-leading logarithms reduces the scale dependence of alpha(s) and allows an extension of the fit range towards the infrared limit of the kinematical range. The combined value for alpha(s) obtained at the scale mu2 = M(Z)2 is: alpha(s)(M(Z)2)= 0.123 +/- 0.006