Improved search for Bs0−Bˉs0B^0_s-\bar B^0_s oscillations

An improved search for Bs oscillations is performed in the ALEPH data sample collected during the first phase of LEP, and reprocessed in 1998. Three analyses based on complementary event selections are presented. First, decays of Bs mesons into hadronic flavour eigenstates are fully reconstructed. This selection yields a small sample of candidates with excellent decay length and momentum resolution and high average Bs purity. Semileptonic decays with a reconstructed Ds- meson provide a second sample with larger statistics, high average Bs purity, but a poorer momentum and decay length resolution due to the partial decay reconstruction. Finally, semileptonic b-hadron decays are inclusively selected and yield the data sample with the highest sensitivity to Bs oscillations, as the much higher statistics compensate for the low average Bs purity and poorer time resolution. A lower limit is set at 10.9 ps-1 at 95% CL, significantly lower than the expected limit of 15.7 ps-1

Studies of QCD in e+e−→e^{+}e^{-} \to hadrons at EcmE_{cm} = 130 and 136 GeV

An analysis of the properties of hadronic final states produced in electron-positron annihilation at centre-of-mass energies of 130 and 136 GeV is presented. The measurements are based on a data sample of 5.7 pb$^{-1}$ collected in November 1995 with the Aleph detector at LEP. Inclusive charged particle distributions, jet rates and event-shape distributions are measured and the results are compared with the predictions of QCD-based models. From the measured distributions quantities are determined for which the dependence on the centre-of-mass energy can be predicted by QCD, including the mean multiplicity of charged particles, the peak position of the inclusive distribution of $\xi = -\ln x_p$ ($x_p = p/p_{\rm beam}$), and the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$. The QCD predictions are tested by comparing with corresponding measurements at $E_{\rm cm} = 91.2$ GeV and at lower energies