Inclusive production of neutral vector mesons in hadronic Z decays

Abstract

Data taken with ALEPH at LEP are presented on the inclusive production of the neutral mesons $\rho^0$(770), $\omega$(782), $\mathrm{K^{*0}}$(892), $\phi$(1020) in hadronic $\mathrm{Z^0}$ decays and compared to Monte Carlo model predictions. Bose-Einstein effects are found to be important in extracting a reliable value for the $\rho^0$ production rate; an average multiplicity of $1.45 \pm 0.22$ per event is obtained. The $\omega$ is detected via its three pion decay mode $\omega \rightarrow \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ and has a total rate of $1.07 \pm 0.14$ per event. $0.83 \pm 0.09$ $\mathrm{K^{*0}}$'s and $0.122 \pm 0.009$ \fn's are measured using their charged decay modes. The ratio of strange vector to pseudoscalar mesons, expressed as $\mathrm{[V/(V+P)]_s}$ is measured to be $0.51 \pm 0.06$; the strangeness suppression s/u is extracted as $0.29 \pm 0.04$