Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays

Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in $b$, $c$ and light quark ($u,d,s$) events from $Z^0$ decays measured in the SLD experiment. Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of $b$ and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select $c$ quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities: $\bar{n}_{uds} = 20.21 \pm 0.10 (\rm{stat.})\pm 0.22(\rm{syst.})$, $\bar{n}_{c} = 21.28 \pm 0.46(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.41}_{-0.36}(\rm{syst.})$ $\bar{n}_{b} = 23.14 \pm 0.10(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.38}_{-0.37}(\rm{syst.})$, from which we derived the differences between the total average charged multiplicities of $c$ or $b$ quark events and light quark events: $\Delta \bar{n}_c = 1.07 \pm 0.47(\rm{stat.})^{+0.36}_{-0.30}(\rm{syst.})$ and $\Delta \bar{n}_b = 2.93 \pm 0.14(\rm{stat.})^{+0.30}_{-0.29}(\rm{syst.})$. We compared these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters

The On-orbit Calibrations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on--board the Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope began its on--orbit operations on June 23, 2008. Calibrations, defined in a generic sense, correspond to synchronization of trigger signals, optimization of delays for latching data, determination of detector thresholds, gains and responses, evaluation of the perimeter of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), measurements of live time, of absolute time, and internal and spacecraft boresight alignments. Here we describe on orbit calibration results obtained using known astrophysical sources, galactic cosmic rays, and charge injection into the front-end electronics of each detector. Instrument response functions will be described in a separate publication. This paper demonstrates the stability of calibrations and describes minor changes observed since launch. These results have been used to calibrate the LAT datasets to be publicly released in August 2009.Comment: 60 pages, 34 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic

First measurement of the double inclusive B / anti-B hadron energy distribution in e+ e- annihilations, and of angle dependent moments of the B and anti-B energies

We have made the first measurement of the double-inclusive B/Bbar energy distribution in e+e- annihilations, using a sample of 400,000 hadronic Z0 decay events recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC between 1996 and 1998. The small and stable SLC beam spot and the CCD-based vertex detector were used to reconstruct B/Bbar decay vertices with high efficiency and purity, and to provide measurements of the kinematic quantities used to calculate the B energies in this novel technique. We measured the B/Bbar energies with good efficiency and resolution over the full kinematic range. We measured moments of the scaled energies of the B and Bbar hadrons vs. the opening angle between them. By comparing these results with perturbative QCD predictions we tested the ansatz of factorisation in heavy-quark production. A recent next-to-leading order calculation reproduces the data.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures; submitted to Physics Letters

Factorial and cumulant moments in e+ e- ---> hadrons at the Z0 resonance

We present the first experimental study of the ratio of cumulant to factorial moments of the charged-particle multiplicity distribution in high-energy particle interactions, using hadronic Z$^0$ decays collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. We find that this ratio, as a function of the moment-rank $q$, decreases sharply to a negative minimum at $q=5$, which is followed by quasi-oscillations. These features are insensitive to experimental systematic effects and are in qualitative agreement with expectations from next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD.Comment: 13 pages, latex file, uuencoded eps figure

Measurement of B0 ---> D(*)+ D*- branching fractions and B0 ---> D*+(s) D*- polarization with a partial reconstruction technique

We present a study of the decays B0->D_s(*)+D*-, using 20.8 fb-1 of e+e- annihilation data recorded with the BABAR detector. The analysis is conducted with a partial reconstruction technique, in which only the D_s(*)+ and the soft pion from the D*- decay are reconstructed. We measure the branching fractions BR(B0->D_s+D*-) = (1.03 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.26)% and BR(B0->D_s*+D*-) = (1.97 +/- 0.15 +/- 0.30 +/- 0.49)%, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is the error due to the D_s+->phi pi+ branching fraction uncertainty. From the B0->D_s*+D*- angular distributions, we measure the fraction of longitudinal polarization Gamma_L/Gamma = (51.9 +/- 5.0 +/- 2.8)%, which is consistent with theoretical predictions based on factorization.Comment: 9 pages, 4 postscript figues, submitted to Physical Review D (Rapid Communications

Measurement of the CKM matrix element |V(ub)| with B ---> rho e nu decays

We present a measurement of the branching fraction for the rare decays B->rho e nu and extract a value for the magnitude of Vub, one of the smallest elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing matrix. The results are given for five different calculations of form factors used to parametrize the hadronic current in semileptonic decays. Using a sample of 55 million BBbar meson pairs recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- storage ring, we obtain Br(B0->rho- e+ nu)=(3.29 +-0.42 +-0.47 +-0.60) x 10^-4 and |Vub|=(3.64 +-0.22 +-0.25 +0.39-0.56)x10^-3, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and theoretical, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Measurement of the branching fraction and CP violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to D*+- D-+

We present measurements of the branching fraction and CP-violating asymmetries for neutral B decays to D*+-D-+. The measurement uses a data sample of approximately 88 million Y(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory. We measure the branching fraction to be (8.8 +- 1.0 +- 1.3) x 10^-4 and the time-integrated CP-violating asymmetry between the rates to D*+D- and D*-D+ to be A = -0.03 +- 0.11 +- 0.05. We also measure the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetry parameters to be S-+ = -0.24 +- 0.69 +- 0.12, C-+ = -0.22 +- 0.37 +- 0.10 for B --> D*-D+ and S+- = -0.82 +- 0.75 +- 0.14$, C+- = -0.47 +- 0.40 +- 0.12 for B --> D*+D-. In each case the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, published as Phys. Rev. Lett 90 (2003) 22180

Measurement of the branching fraction for inclusive semileptonic B meson decays

A largely model-independent measurement of the inclusive electron momentum spectrum and branching fraction for semileptonic decays of B mesons is presented based on data recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector. Backgrounds from secondary charm decays are separated from prompt B decays using charge and angular correlations between the electron from one B meson and a high momentum electron tag from the second B meson. The resulting branching fraction is BR(B -> X e nu) = (10.87 +-0.18(stat)+-0.30(syst))%. Based on this measurement we determine the CKM matrix element |V_cb|