113 research outputs found
Measurement of the partial widths of the Z into up- and down-type quarks
Using the entire OPAL LEP1 on-peak Z hadronic decay sample, Z -> qbarq gamma
decays were selected by tagging hadronic final states with isolated photon
candidates in the electromagnetic calorimeter. Combining the measured rates of
Z -> qbarq gamma decays with the total rate of hadronic Z decays permits the
simultaneous determination of the widths of the Z into up- and down-type
quarks. The values obtained, with total errors, were Gamma u = 300 ^{+19}_{-18}
MeV and Gamma d = 381 ^{+12}_{-12} MeV. The results are in good agreement with
the Standard Model expectation.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.
Search for R-Parity Violating Decays of Scalar Fermions at LEP
A search for pair-produced scalar fermions under the assumption that R-parity
is not conserved has been performed using data collected with the OPAL detector
at LEP. The data samples analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of
about 610 pb-1 collected at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) 189-209 GeV. An
important consequence of R-parity violation is that the lightest supersymmetric
particle is expected to be unstable. Searches of R-parity violating decays of
charged sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks have been performed under the
assumptions that the lightest supersymmetric particle decays promptly and that
only one of the R-parity violating couplings is dominant for each of the decay
modes considered. Such processes would yield final states consisting of
leptons, jets, or both with or without missing energy. No significant
single-like excess of events has been observed with respect to the Standard
Model expectations. Limits on the production cross- section of scalar fermions
in R-parity violating scenarios are obtained. Constraints on the supersymmetric
particle masses are also presented in an R-parity violating framework analogous
to the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
Measurement of the Strong Coupling alpha s from Four-Jet Observables in e+e- Annihilation
Data from e+e- annihilation into hadrons at centre-of-mass energies between
91 GeV and 209 GeV collected with the OPAL detector at LEP, are used to study
the four-jet rate as a function of the Durham algorithm resolution parameter
ycut. The four-jet rate is compared to next-to-leading order calculations that
include the resummation of large logarithms. The strong coupling measured from
the four-jet rate is alphas(Mz0)=
0.1182+-0.0003(stat.)+-0.0015(exp.)+-0.0011(had.)+-0.0012(scale)+-0.0013(mass)
in agreement with the world average. Next-to-leading order fits to the
D-parameter and thrust minor event-shape observables are also performed for the
first time. We find consistent results, but with significantly larger
theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, Submitted to Euro. Phys. J.
Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F_2^gamma at LEP2
The hadronic structure function of the photon F_2^gamma is measured as a
function of Bjorken x and of the factorisation scale Q^2 using data taken by
the OPAL detector at LEP. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of
F_2^gamma are extended to an average Q^2 of 767 GeV^2. The Q^2 evolution of
F_2^gamma is studied for average Q^2 between 11.9 and 1051 GeV^2. As predicted
by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F_2^gamma. Several
parameterisations of F_2^gamma are in agreement with the measurements whereas
the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of Photon 2001,
Ascona, Switzerlan
Measurement of Rb in e+e- Collisions at 182 - 209 GeV
Measurements of Rb, the ratio of the bbbar cross-section to the qqbar cross-
section in e+e- collisions, are presented. The data were collected by the OPAL
experiment at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 182 GeV and 209 GeV.
Lepton, lifetime and event shape information is used to tag events containing b
quarks with high efficiency. The data are compatible with the Standard Model
expectation. The mean ratio of the eight measurements reported here to the
Standard Model prediction is 1.055+-0.031+-0.037, where the first error is
statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts
Genuine Correlations of Like-Sign Particles in Hadronic Z0 Decays
Correlations among hadrons with the same electric charge produced in Z0
decays are studied using the high statistics data collected from 1991 through
1995 with the OPAL detector at LEP. Normalized factorial cumulants up to fourth
order are used to measure genuine particle correlations as a function of the
size of phase space domains in rapidity, azimuthal angle and transverse
momentum. Both all-charge and like-sign particle combinations show strong
positive genuine correlations. One-dimensional cumulants initially increase
rapidly with decreasing size of the phase space cells but saturate quickly. In
contrast, cumulants in two- and three-dimensional domains continue to increase.
The strong rise of the cumulants for all-charge multiplets is increasingly
driven by that of like-sign multiplets. This points to the likely influence of
Bose-Einstein correlations. Some of the recently proposed algorithms to
simulate Bose-Einstein effects, implemented in the Monte Carlo model PYTHIA,
are found to reproduce reasonably well the measured second- and higher-order
correlations between particles with the same charge as well as those in
all-charge particle multiplets.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Search for Radions at LEP2
A new scalar resonance, called the radion, with couplings to fermions and
bosons similar to those of the Higgs boson, is predicted in the framework of
Randall-Sundrum models, proposed solutions to the hierarchy problem with one
extra dimension. An important distinction between the radion and the Higgs
boson is that the radion would couple directly to gluon pairs, and in
particular its decay products would include a significant fraction of gluon
jets. The radion had the same quantum numbers as the Standard Model (SM) Higgs
boson, and therefore they can mix, with the resulting mass eigenstates having
properties different from those of the SM Higgs boson. Existing searches for
the Higgs boson are sensitive to the possible production and decay of radions
and Higgs bosons in these models. For the first time, searches for the SM Higgs
boson and flavour-independent and decay-mode independent searches for a neutral
Higgs boson are used in combination to explore the parameter space of the
Randall-Sundrum model. In the dataset recorded by the OPAL experiment at LEP,
no evidence for radion or Higgs particle production was observed in any of
those searches. The results are used to set limits on the radion and Higgs
boson masses.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Mulit-Photon Events with Large Missing energy in e+e- collisions at sqrt(s)=192-209 GeV
Events with a final state consisting of two or more photons and large missing
transverse energy have been observed in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass
energies in the range 192 - 209 GeV using the OPAL detector at LEP.
Cross-section measurements are performed within the kinematic acceptance of the
selection and compared with the expectation from the Standard Model process
e+e- -> nu nu gamma gamma(gamma). No evidence for new physics contributions to
this final state is observed. Upper limits on sigma (e+e- -> XX) BR^2(X ->
Ygamma) are derived for the case of stable and invisible Y. In the case of
massive Y the combined limits obtained from all the data range from 10 fb to 60
fb, while for the special case of massless Y the range is 20 fb to 40 fb. The
limits apply to pair production of excited neutrions (X=nu^*,Y=nu), to
neutralino production (X=~chi^0_2, Y=~chi^0_1) and to supersymmetric models in
which X=~chi^0_1 and Y=~G is a light gravitino.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts
Search for Leptoquarks in Electron-Photon Scattering at sqrt(s_ee) up to 209 GeV at LEP
Searches for first generation scalar and vector leptoquarks, and for squarks
in R-parity violating SUSY models with the direct decay of the squark into
Standard Model particles, have been performed using e+e- collisions collected
with the OPAL detector at LEP at e+e- centre-of-mass energies between 189 and
209 GeV. No excess of events is found over the expectation from Standard Model
background processes. Limits are computed on the leptoquark couplings for
different values of the branching ratio to electron-quark final states.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Search for Associated Production of Massive States Decaying into Two Photonsin e+e- Annihilations at sqrt(s) = 88-209 GeV
A search is performed for production of short-lived particles in e+e- -> XY,
with X -> gamma gamma and Y -> ffbar, for scalar X and scalar or vector Y.
Model-independent limits in the range of 25-60 femtobarns are presented on
sigma (e+e- -> XY) x B(X -> ffbar) for centre-of-mass energies in the range
205-207 GeV. The data from all LEP centre-of-mass energies 88-209 GeV are also
interpreted in the context of fermiophobic Higgs boson models, for which a
lower mass limit of 105.5 GeV is obtained for a "benchmark" fermiophobic Higgs
boson.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
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