Limits to the muon flux from WIMP annihilation in the center of the Earth with the AMANDA detector

A search for nearly vertical up-going muon-neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the center of the Earth has been performed with the AMANDA-B10 neutrino detector. The data sample collected in 130.1 days of live-time in 1997, ~10^9 events, has been analyzed for this search. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background is oberved. An upper limit at 90% confidence level on the annihilation rate of neutralinos in the center of the Earth is obtained as a function of the neutralino mass in the range 100 GeV-5000 GeV, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermio

Search for charginos in e+e- interactions at sqrt(s) = 189 GeV

An update of the searches for charginos and gravitinos is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to the 158 pb^{-1} recorded by the DELPHI detector in 1998, at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV. No evidence for a signal was found. The lower mass limits are 4-5 GeV/c^2 higher than those obtained at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The (\mu,M_2) MSSM domain excluded by combining the chargino searches with neutralino searches at the Z resonance implies a limit on the mass of the lightest neutralino which, for a heavy sneutrino, is constrained to be above 31.0 GeV/c^2 for tan(beta) \geq 1.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure

Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP

Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau, masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10 to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc may be set for the stau mas

Hadronization properties of b quarks compared to light quarks in e+e- -> q qbar from 183 to 200 GeV

The DELPHI detector at LEP has collected 54 pb^{-1} of data at a centre-of-mass energy around 183 GeV during 1997, 158 pb^{-1} around 189 GeV during 1998, and 187 pb^{-1} between 192 and 200 GeV during 1999. These data were used to measure the average charged particle multiplicity in e+e- -> b bbar events, _{bb}, and the difference delta_{bl} between _{bb} and the multiplicity, _{ll}, in generic light quark (u,d,s) events: delta_{bl}(183 GeV) = 4.55 +/- 1.31 (stat) +/- 0.73 (syst) delta_{bl}(189 GeV) = 4.43 +/- 0.85 (stat) +/- 0.61 (syst) delta_{bl}(200 GeV) = 3.39 +/- 0.89 (stat) +/- 1.01 (syst). This result is consistent with QCD predictions, while it is inconsistent with calculations assuming that the multiplicity accompanying the decay of a heavy quark is independent of the mass of the quark itself.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Study of triple-gauge-boson couplings ZZZ, ZZgamma and Zgamma gamma LEP.

Neutral triple-gauge-boson couplings ZZZ, ZZγ and Zγγ have been studied with the DELPHI detector using data at energies between 183 and 208 GeV. Limits are derived on these couplings from an analysis of the reactions e+e-→Zγ, using data from the final states γff̄, with f=q or ν, from e+e-→ZZ, using data from the four-fermion final states qq̄qq̄, qq̄μ+μ-, qq̄e+e-, qq̄νν̄, μ+μ-νν̄ and e+e-νν̄, and from e+e-→Zγ*, in which the final state γ is off mass-shell, using data from the four-fermion final states qq̄e+e- and qq̄μ+μ-. No evidence for the presence of such couplings is observed, in agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model

Measurement of the B0s lifetime and study of B0s-B0s oscillations using Dsℓ events

Lifetime and oscillations of B0s mesons have been studied in events with a large transverse momentum lepton and a Ds of opposite electric charge in the same hemisphere, selected from about, 3.6 million hadronic Z0 decays accumulated by DELPHI between 1992 and 1995. The B0s lifetime and the fractional width difference between the two physical B0s states have been found to be: τB0s = (1.42+0.14-0.13(stat.) ± 0.03(syst.)) ps ΔΓB0s/ΓB0s < 0.46 at the 95% C.L. In the latter result it has been assumed that τB0s = τB0d. Using the same sample, a limit on the mass difference between the physical B0s states has been set: ΔmB0s > 7.4 ps-1 at the 95% C.L. with a corresponding sensitivity equal to 8.1 ps-1

Measurement of the inclusive charmless and double charm B branching ratios

The DELPHI experiment at LEP has measured the inclusive charmless $B$ hadron decay branching ratio, the $B$ branching ratio into two charmed particles, and the total number of charmed particles per $B$ decay, using the hadronic Z data taken between 1992 and 1995. The results are extracted from a fit to the $b$-tagging probability distribution based on the precise impact parameter measurements made using the microvertex detector. The inclusive charmless $B$ branching ratio, including $B$ decays into hidden charm ($c\bar{c}$), is measured to be $0.033 \pm 0.021$. The $B$ branching ratio into two open charmed particles is $0.136 \pm 0.042$. The mean number of charmed particles per $B$ decay (including hidden charm) is $1.147 \pm 0.041$. After subtracting the $B$ decay branching ratio into hidden charm, the charmless $B$ branching ratio is found to be $0.007 \pm 0.021$, compatible with the Standard Model expectation. Models that predict an additional contribution to the charmless $B$ branching ratio of 0.037 or higher are excluded with at least 95\% confidence

Search for pair-produced neutralinos in events with photons and missing energy from e+e- collisions at √s=130-183 GeV

The events with two photons and missing (transverse) energy collected by the DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies between 130 GeV and 183 GeV have been studied to search for processes of the type e+e- → YY with the subsequent decay Y → Xγ, where X is an undetectable neutral particle. Reactions of this kind are expected in supersymmetric models, where the Y particle can be either the lightest neutralino, decaying to a photon and a gravitino, or the next-to-lightest neutralino, decaying to a photon and the lightest neutralino. To study the case of long-lived Y particles, a search for single-photon events with the reconstructed photon axis pointing far from the beam interaction region has also been performed. No evidence for a deviation from Standard Model expectations has been observed in the data and upper limits have been derived on the signal cross-section as a function of the the X and Y masses and of the Y mean decay path