A mixed analog/digital shaper for the LHCb preshower

This note describes, first, the experimental and theoretical studies of the LHCb's preshower signals performed with a prototype cell. Four designs of the very front end electronic are then discuted and a choice is proposed

Constraints on anomalous QGC's in e+e−e^{+}e^{-} interactions from 183 to 209 GeV

The acoplanar photon pairs produced in the reaction e(+) e(-) - → vvyy are analysed in the 700 pb(-1) of data collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies between 183 and 209 GeV. No deviation from the Standard Model predictions is seen in any of the distributions examined. The resulting 95% C.L. limits set on anomalous QGCs, a(0)(Z), a(c)(Z), a(0)(W) and a(c)(W), are -0.012 lt a(0)(Z)/Lambda(2) lt +0.019 GeV-2, -0.041 lt a(c)(Z)/Lambda(2) lt +0.044 GeV-2, -0.060 lt a(0)(W)/Lambda(2) lt +0.055 GeV-2, -0.099 lt a(c)(W)/Lambda(2) lt +0.093 GeV-2, where Lambda is the energy scale of the new physics responsible for the anomalous couplings

Absolute mass lower limit for the lightest neutralino of the MSSM from e+e−e^{+}e^{-} data at s\sqrt{s} up to 209 GeV

Charginos and neutralinos are searched for in the data collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP for centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. The negative result of these searches is combined with those from searches for sleptons and Higgs bosons to derive an absolute lower limit of 43.1 GeV/c(2) on the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), assumed to be the,lightest neutralino. This limit is obtained in the framework of the MSSM with R-parity conservation and with gaugino and sfermion mass unification at the GUT scale and assuming no mixing in the stau sector. The LSP limit degrades only slightly to 42.4 GeV/c(2) if stau mixing is considered. Within the more constrained framework of minimal supergravity, the limit is 50 GeV/c(2)

Measurement of the W mass in e+e−e^+ e^- collisions at 183 GeV

The mass of the W boson is obtained from reconstructed invariant mass distributions in W-pair events. The sample of W pairs is selected from 57 pb$^{-1}$ collected with the ALEPH detector in 1997 at a centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The invariant mass distributions of reweighted Monte Carlo events are fitted separately to the experimental distributions in the $qqbarqqbar$ and all l\nuqqbar channels to give the following W masses: $m_{W}^{hadronic} = 80.461 \pm 0.177(stat.) \pm 0.045(syst.) \pm 0.056(theory) GeV/c^2$, $m_{W}^{semileptonic} = 80.326 \pm 0.184(stat.) \pm 0.040(syst.) GeV/c^2$ where the theory error represents the possible effects of final state interactions. The combination of these two measurements, including the LEP energy calibration uncertainty, gives $m_{W} = 80.393 \pm 0.128(stat.)\pm 0.041(syst.) \pm 0.028(theory)\pm 0.021(LEP) GeV/c^2

Limit on Bs0B^0_s oscillation using a jet charge method

A lower limit is set on the B_{s}^{0} meson oscillation parameter \Delta m_{s} using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/antiparticle final state in decays of neutral B mesons. The initial state is determined by a jet charge technique using both sides of the event. A maximum likelihood method is used to set a lower limit of \, \Delta m_{s}. The 95\% confidence level lower limit on \Delta m_s ranges between 5.2 and 6.5(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} when the fraction of b quarks from Z^0 decays that form B_{s}^{0} mesons is varied from 8\% to 16\%. Assuming that the B_{s}^{0} fraction is 12\%, the lower limit would be \Delta m_{s} 6.1(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} at 95\% confidence level. For x_s = \Delta m_s \, \tau_{B_s}, this limit also gives x_s 8.8 using the B_{s}^{0} lifetime of \tau_{B_s} = 1.55 \pm 0.11~ps and shifting the central value of \tau_{B_s} down by 1\sigma

Measurement of the Bs0^0_s lifetime and production rate with Ds−l+^-_s l^+ combinations in Z decays

The lifetime of the \bs meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different \ds decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic \bs decays. Two hundred and eight \dsl candidates satisfy selection criteria designed to ensure precise proper time reconstruction and yield a measured \bs lifetime of \mbox{\result .} Using a larger, less constrained sample of events, the product branching ratio is measured to be \mbox{\pbrresult