arXiv subjects

The OPAL collaboration

Publications and source records attributed to The OPAL collaboration.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2002

Measurement of the Charm structure Function F2c of the Photon at LEP

The production of charm quarks is studied in deep-inelastic electron-photon scattering using data recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP at normal e+e- centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. The charm quarks have been identified by full reconstruction of charged D* mesons using their decays into D0pi with the D0 observed in two decay modes with charged particle final states, Kpi and K3pi. The cross-section sigma(D*) for production of charged D* in the reaction e+e- -> e+e-D*X is measured in a restricted kinematical region using two bins in Bjorken x, 0.0014 < x < 0.1 and 0.1 < x < 0.87. From sigma(D*) the charm production cross-section sigma(e+e- -> e+e- ccbar X) and the charm structure function of the photon F 2,c are determined in the region 0.0014 < x < 0.87 and 5 < Q2 < 100 GeV2. For x > 0.1 the perturbative QCD calculation at next-to-leading order agrees perfectly with the measured cross-section. For x < 0.1 the measured cross-section is 43.8 +- 14.3 +- 6.3 +- 2.8 pb with a next-to-leading order prediction of 17.0+2.9-2.3 p.b

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arXiv2002

Decay-mode independent searches for new scalar bosons with the OPAL detector at LEP

This paper describes topological searches for neutral scalar bosons S0 produced in association with a Z0 boson via the Bjorken process e+e- -> S0Z0 at centre-of-mass energies of 91 GeV and 183-209 GeV. These searches are based on studies of the recoil mass spectrum of Z0 -> e+e- and mu+mu- events on a search for S0Z0 with Z0 -> nunu bar and S0 -> e+e- or photons. They cover the decays of the S0 into an arbitrary combination of hadrons, leptons, photons and invisible particles as well as the possibility that it might be stable. No indication for a signal is found in the data and upper limits on the cross section of the Bjorken process are calculated. Cross-section limits are given in terms of a scale factor k with respect to the Standrad Model cross section for the Higgs-strahlung process e+e- -> H0smZ0. These results can be interpreted in general scenarios independently of the decay modes of the S0. The examples considered here are the production of a single new scalar particle with a decay width smaller than the detector mass resolution, and for the first time, two scenarios with continuous mass distributions, due to a single very broad state or several states close in mass.

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arXiv2002

Measurement of the Mass of the W Boson in e+e- collisions using the Fully Leptonic Channel

A novel method of determining the mass of the W boson in the W+W- -> lnu lnu channel is presented and applied to 667pb^-1 of data recorded at the center-of- mass energies in the range 183-207 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP. The Measured energies of charged leptons and the results of a new procedure based on an approximate kinematic reconstruction of the events are combined to give: Mw=80.41+-0.41+-0.13 GeV, when the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The systematic error is dominated by the uncertainty on the lepton energy, which is calibrated using data, and the parameterization of the variables used in the fitting, which is obtained using Monte Carlo events. Both of these are limited by statistics.

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arXiv2002

Measurement of the Hadronic Photon Structure Function F2gamma at LEP2

The hadronic structure of the photon F2gamma is measured as a function of Bjorken x and of the photon virtuality Q2 using deep-inelastic scattering data taken by the OPAL detector at LEP at e+e- centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. Previous OPAL measurements of the x dependence of F2gamma are extended to an average Q2 of =780GeV2 using data in the kinematic range 0.15 < x < 0.98. The Q2 evolution of F2gamma is studied for 12.1 < < 780GeV2 using three ranges of x. As predicted by QCD, the data show positive scaling violations in F2gamma for the central x region 0.10-0.60. Several parameterisations of F2gamma are in qualitative agreement with the measurements whereas the quark-parton model prediction fails to describe the data.

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arXiv2001

Search for Leptoquarks in Electron-Photon Scattering at sqrt(s_ee) up to 209 GeV at LEP

Searches for first generation scalar and vector leptoquarks, and for squarks in R-parity violating SUSY models with the direct decay of the squark into Standard Model particles, have been performed using e+e- collisions collected with the OPAL detector at LEP at e+e- centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV. No excess of events is found over the expectation from Standard Model background processes. Limits are computed on the leptoquark couplings for different values of the branching ratio to electron-quark final states.

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arXiv2001

Search for Doubly Charged Higgs Bosons with the OPAL detector at LEP

A search for pair-produced doubly charged Higgs bosons has been performed using data samples corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 614 pb-1 collected with the OPAL detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 189GeV and 209GeV. No evidence for a signal has been observed. A mass limit of 98.5GeV/c2 at the 95% confidence level has been set for the doubly charged Higgs particle in left-right symmetric models. This is the first search for doubly charged Higgs bosons at centre-of-mass energies larger than 91GeV.

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arXiv2001

Particle multiplicity of unbiased gluon jets from e+e- three-jet events

The charged particle multiplicities of two- and three-jet events from the reaction e+e- -> Z0 -> hadrons are measured for Z0 decays to light quark (uds) flavors. Using recent theoretical expressions to account for biases from event selection, results corresponding to unbiased gluon jets are extracted over a range of jet energies from about 11 to 30 GeV. We find consistency between these results and direct measurements of unbiased gluon jet multiplicity from upsilon and Z0 decays. The unbiased gluon jet data including the direct measurements are compared to corresponding results for quark jets. We perform fits based on analytic expressions for particle multiplicity in jets to determine the ratio r = Ng/Nq of multiplicities between gluon and quark jets as a function of energy. We also determine the ratio of slopes, r(1) = (dNg/dy)/(dNq/dy), and of curvatures, r(2) = (d2Ng/dy2)/(d2Nq/dy2), where y specifies the energy scale. At 30 GeV, we find r = 1.422 +/- 0.051, r(1) = 1.761 +/- 0.071 and r(2) = 1.98 +/- 0.13, where the uncertainties are the statistical and systematic terms added in quadrature. These results are in general agreement with theoretical predictions. In addition, we use the measurements of the energy dependence of Ng and Nq to determine an effective value of the ratio of QCD color factors, CA/CF. Our result, CA/CF = 2.23 +/- 0.14 (total), is consistent with the QCD value of 2.25.

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arXiv2001

Search for Yukawa Production of a Light Neutral Higgs Boson at LEP

Within a Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) a search for a light Higgs boson in the mass range of 4-12 GeV has been performed in the Yukawa process e+e- -> b bbar A/h -> b bbar tau+tau-, using the data collected by the OPAL detector at LEP between 1992 and 1995 in e+e- collisions at about 91 GeV centre-of-mass energy. A likelihood selection is applied to separate background and signal. The number of observed events is in good agreement with the expected background. Within a CP-conserving 2HDM type II model the cross-section for Yukawa production depends on xiAd = |tan beta| and xihd = |sin alpha/cos beta| for the production of the CP-odd A and the CP-even h, respectively, where tan beta is the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the Higgs doublets and alpha is the mixing angle between the neutral CP-even Higgs bosons. From our data 95% C.L. upper limits are derived for xiAd within the range of 8.5 to 13.6 and for xihd between 8.2 to 13.7, depending on the mass of the Higgs boson, assuming a branching fraction into tau+tau- of 100%. An interpretation of the limits within a 2HDM type II model with Standard Model particle content is given. These results impose constraints on several models that have been proposed to explain the recent BNL measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment.

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arXiv2001

Genuine Correlations of Like-Sign Particles in Hadronic Z0 Decays

Correlations among hadrons with the same electric charge produced in Z0 decays are studied using the high statistics data collected from 1991 through 1995 with the OPAL detector at LEP. Normalized factorial cumulants up to fourth order are used to measure genuine particle correlations as a function of the size of phase space domains in rapidity, azimuthal angle and transverse momentum. Both all-charge and like-sign particle combinations show strong positive genuine correlations. One-dimensional cumulants initially increase rapidly with decreasing size of the phase space cells but saturate quickly. In contrast, cumulants in two- and three-dimensional domains continue to increase. The strong rise of the cumulants for all-charge multiplets is increasingly driven by that of like-sign multiplets. This points to the likely influence of Bose-Einstein correlations. Some of the recently proposed algorithms to simulate Bose-Einstein effects, implemented in the Monte Carlo model PYTHIA, are found to reproduce reasonably well the measured second- and higher-order correlations between particles with the same charge as well as those in all-charge particle multiplets.

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arXiv2001

Search for Single Top Quark Production at LEP2

A search for single top quark production via flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) was performed with data collected by the OPAL detector at the e+e- collider LEP. Approximately 600 pb-1 of data collected at sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV were used to search for the FCNC process e+ e- -> tc(u) -> bWc(u). This analysis is sensitive to the leptonic and the hadronic decay modes of the W boson. No evidence for a FCNC process is observed. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the single top production cross-section as a function of the centre-of-mass energy are derived. Limits on the anomalous coupling parameters kappa_gamma and kappa_Z are determined from these results.

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arXiv2001

Measurement of the Hadronic Cross-Section for the Scattering of Two Virtual Photons at LEP

The interaction of virtual photons is investigated using the reaction e+e- -> e+e- hadrons based on data taken by the OPAL experiment at e+e- centre-of-mass energies sqrt(s_ee)=189-209 GeV, for W>5 GeV and at an average Q^2 of 17.9 GeV^2. The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of the Quark Parton Model (QPM), to the Leading Order QCD Monte Carlo model PHOJET to the NLO prediction for the reaction e+e- -> e+e-qqbar, and to BFKL calculations. PHOJET, NLO e+e- -> e+e-qqbar, and QPM describe the data reasonably well, whereas the cross-section predicted by a Leading Order BFKL calculation is too large.

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arXiv2001

Search for Lepton Flavour Violation in e+e- Collisions at sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV

We search for lepton flavour violating events (e mu, e tau and mu tau) that could be directly produced in e+e- annihilations, using the full available data sample collected with the OPAL detector at centre-of-mass energies between 189 GeV and 209 GeV. In general, the Standard Model expectations describe the data well for all the channels and at each sqrt(s). A single e mu event is observed where according to our Monte Carlo simulations only 0.019 events are expected from Standard Model processes. We obtain the first limits on the cross-sections sigma(e+e- -> e mu, e tau and mu tau) as a function of sqrt(s) at LEP2 energies.

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arXiv2001

Measurement of the Branching Ratio for the Process b -> tau nu X

The inclusive branching ratio for the process b -> tau nu X has been measured using hadronic Z decays collected by the OPAL experiment at LEP in the years 1992-2000. The result is: BR(b -> tau nu X) = (2.78 +/- 0.18 +/- 0.51)% This measurement is consistent with the Standard Model expectation and puts a constraint of tan(beta) / M(H+/-) < 0.53 GeV-1 at the 95% confidence level on Type II Two Higgs Doublet Models.

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arXiv2001

Measurement of Z/gamma* production in Compton scattering of quasi-real photons

The process e+ e- -> e+ e- Z/gamma* is studied with the OPAL detector at LEP at a centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 189 GeV. The cross-section times the branching ratio of the Z/gamma* decaying into hadrons is measured within Lorentz invariant kinematic limits to be (1.2 +/- 0.3 +/- 0.1) pb for invariant masses of the hadronic system between 5 GeV and 60 GeV and (0.7 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.1) pb for hadronic masses above 60 GeV. The differential cross-sections of the Mandelstam variables s-hat, t-hat, and u-hat are measured and compared with the predictions from the Monte Carlo generators grc4f and PYTHIA. From this, based on a factorisation ansatz, the total and differential cross-sections for the subprocess e gamma -> e Z/gamma* are derived.

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arXiv2001

Angular Analysis of the Muon Pair Asymmetry at LEP 1

Data on muon pair production obtained by the OPAL collaboration at centre of mass energies near the Z peak are analysed. Small angular mismatches between the directions of the two muons are used to assess the effects of initial state photon radiation and initial-final-state radiation interference on the forward-backward asymmetry of muon pairs. The dependence of the asymmetry on the invariant mass of the pair is measured in a model-independent way. Effective vector and axial-vector couplings of the Z boson are determined and compared to the Standard Model expectations.

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arXiv2001

Measurement of Vub using b hadron semileptonic decays

The magnitude of the CKM matrix element Vub is determined by measuring the inclusive charmless semileptonic branching fraction of beauty hadrons at OPAL based on b -> Xu l nu event topology and kinematics. This analysis uses OPAL data collected between 1991 and 1995, which correspond to about four million hadronic Z decays. We measure Br(b -> Xu l) to be (1.63 +/- 0.53 +0.55/-0.62) x 10^(-3). The first uncertainty is the statistical error and the second is the systematic error. From this analysis, Vub is determined to be: |Vub| = (4.00 +/- 0.65(stat) +0.67/-0.76(sys) +/- 0.19(HQE)) x 10^(-3). The last error represents the theoretical uncertainties related to the extraction of |Vub| from Br(b -> Xu l) using the Heavy Quark Expansion.

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arXiv2001

Search for Single Leptoquark and Squark Production in Electron-Photon Scattering at sqrt(s_ee) = 189 GeV at LEP

A search for first generation scalar and vector leptoquarks (LQ) as well as for squarks in R-parity violating SUSY models has been performed using e+e- collisions collected with the OPAL detector at LEP at an e+e- centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s_ee) of 189 GeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 160 pb-1. The dominant process for this search is e q -> LQ/squark -> e q, nu q, where a photon, which has been radiated by one of the beam electrons, serves as a source of quarks. The numbers of selected events found in the two decay channels are in agreement with the expectations from Standard Model processes. This result allows to set lower limits at the 95% confidence level on the mass of first generation scalar and vector leptoquarks, and of squarks in R-parity violating SUSY models. For Yukawa couplings lambda to fermions larger than sqrt{4 pi alpha_em}, the mass limits range from 121 GeV/c^2 to 175 GeV/c^2 (149 GeV/c^2 to 188 GeV/c^2) depending on the branching ratio beta of the scalar (vector) leptoquark state. Furthermore, limits are set on the Yukawa couplings lambda for leptoquarks and lambda'_1jk for squarks, and on beta as a function of the scalar leptoquark/squark mass.

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arXiv2001

Determination of the b Quark Mass at the Z Mass Scale

In hadronic decays of Z bosons recorded with the OPAL detector at LEP, events containing b quarks were selected using the long lifetime of b flavoured hadrons. Comparing the 3-jet rate in b events with that in d,u,s and c quark events, a significant difference was observed. Using Order(alpha_s squared) calculations for massive quarks, this difference was used to determine the b quark mass in the MSbar renormalisation scheme at the scale of the Z boson mass. By combining the results from seven different jet finders the running b quark mass was determined to be mb(MZ) = (2.67 +/- 0.03(stat) +0.29/-0.37(syst) +/- 0.19(theo.)) GeV. Evolving this value to the b quark mass scale itself yields mb(mb) = (3.95 +0.52/-0.62) GeV, consistent with results obtained at the b quark production threshold. This determination confirms the QCD expectation of a scale dependent quark mass. A constant mass is ruled out by 3.9 standard deviations.

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