Signals of universality violation in e<Superscript>+</Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript> collisions

We examine distributions of leptons produced in e⁺e^- collisions, by a family nonuniversal extra gauge boson Z^′, suggested by the model, and by other neutral gauge bosons occurring in left–right symmetric models and in superstring-inspired E₆ models. We discuss how to distinguish the models by examining the couplings to fermions of the extra Z-boson through its leptonic production cross sections and asymmetries. We show how the universality violation inherent in the model enhances the discovery potential of Z^′ at future planned and proposed e⁺e^- colliders.     

Measurements of charged kaon semileptonic decay branching fractions K±→π0μ±ν and K±→π0e±ν and their ratio

Measured ratios of decay rates for , and are presented. These measurements are based on K^± decays collected in a dedicated run in 2003 by the NA48/2 experiment at CERN. The results obtained are and . Using the PDG average for the K^±→π^±π⁰ normalisation mode, both values are found to be larger than the current values given by the particle data book and lead to a larger magnitude of the |V_us| CKM element than previously accepted. When combined with the latest particle data book value of |V_ud|, the result is in agreement with unitarity of the CKM matrix. In addition, a new measured value of is compared to the semi-empirical predictions based on the latest form factor measurements. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Updated estimate of the muon magnetic momentusing revised results from <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript> + </Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>-</Superscript>annihilation

A new evaluation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon magnetic moment is presented. We take into account the reanalysis of the low-energy e ⁺ e ^-annihilation cross section into hadrons by the CMD-2 Collaboration. The agreement between e ⁺ e ^-and spectral functions in the channel is found to be much improved. Nevertheless, significant discrepancies remain in the center-of-mass energy range between 0.85 and , so that we refrain from averaging the two data sets. The values found for the lowest-order hadronic vacuum polarization contributions are where the errors have been separated according to their sources: experimental, missing radiative corrections in e ⁺ e ^-data, and isospin breaking. The corresponding Standard Model predictions for the muon magnetic anomaly read where the errors account for the hadronic, light-by-light (LBL) scattering and electroweak contributions. The deviations from the measurement at BNL are found to be (1.9 ) and (0.7 ) for the e ⁺ e ^-- and -based estimates, respectively, where the second error is from the LBL contribution and the third one from the BNL measurement.Received: 7 September 2003, Published online: 30 October 2003     

Study of W-boson polarisations and triple gauge boson couplings in the reaction e+e-→W+W- at LEP 2

A determination of the single W spin density matrix (SDM) elements in the reaction e⁺e^-→W⁺W^-→lνqq̄(l=e/μ) is reported at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209 GeV. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 520 pb^-1 taken by DELPHI between 1998 and 2000. The single W SDM elements, ρ_ττ’ ^W± (τ,τ’=± 1 or 0), are determined as a function of the W^- production angle with respect to the e^- beam direction and are obtained from measurements of the W decay products by the application of suitable projection operators, Λ_ττ’, which assume the V-A coupling of the W-boson to fermions. The measured SDM elements are used to obtain the fraction of longitudinally polarised Ws, with the result: at a mean energy of 198 GeV. The SDM elements are also used to determine the triple gauge couplings Δg₁ ^Z,Δκ_γ,λ_γ and g₄ ^Z, and . For the CP-violating couplings the results of single parameter fits are: The errors are a combination of statistical and systematic errors. All results are consistent with the Standard Model.     

Probing little Higgs model in e<Superscript>+</Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript>→νν̄γ process

We study the process e⁺e^-→νν̄γ to search for its sensitivity to the extra gauge bosons Z₂, Z₃ and W₂ ^±, which are suggested by the little Higgs models. We find that the ILC with and CLIC with cover different regions of the LHM parameters. We show that this channel can provide a determination of the parameters, complementary to measurements of the extra gauge bosons obtainable at the upcoming LHC experiments. PACS 14.80.Cp; 12.60.Fr; 12.60.Cn     

e<Superscript> + </Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript>-pair production in Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

We present the combined results on electron-pair production in 158 GeV/n Pb-Au ( = 17.2 GeV) collisions taken at the CERN SPS in 1995 and 1996, and give a detailed account of the data analysis. The enhancement over the reference of neutral meson decays amounts to a factor of 2.31 for semi-central collisions (28 ) when yields are integrated over m > 200 MeV/c² in invariant mass. The measured yield, its stronger-than-linear scaling with , and the dominance of low pair p_t strongly suggest an interpretation as thermal radiation from pion annihilation in the hadronic fireball. The shape of the excess centring at 500 MeV/c², however, cannot be described without strong medium modifications of the meson. The results are put into perspective by comparison to predictions from Brown-Rho scaling governed by chiral symmetry restoration, and from the spectral-function many-body treatment in which the approach to the phase boundary is less explicit.Received: 2 March 2005, Published online: 8 June 2005     

Measurement of the e+e-→W+W- cross section and W decay branching fractions at LEP

From a total data sample of 701.1 pb^-1 recorded with e⁺e^- centre-of-mass energies of 161–209 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP, 11693 W-pair candidate events are selected. These data are used to obtain measurements of the W-pair production cross sections at 10 different centre-of-mass energies. The ratio of the measured cross sections to the standard model expectation is found to be: , where the uncertainties are statistical, experimental systematics and theory systematics respectively. The data are used to determine the W boson branching fractions, which are found to be consistent with lepton universality of the charged current interaction. Assuming lepton universality, the branching ratio to hadrons is determined to be 67.41±0.37(stat.)±0.23(syst.)%, from which the CKM matrix element |V_cs| is determined to be 0.969±0.017(stat.)±0.012(syst.). The differential cross section as a function of the W^- production angle is measured for the qqeν and qqμν final states. The results described in this paper are consistent with the expectations from the standard model. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Ben Shen.     

Analysis of Ωb? (bss) and Ωc0 (css) with QCD sum rules

We calculate the masses and the pole residues of the heavy baryons Ω _c ⁰(css) and Ω _b ⁻(bss) with the QCD sum rules. The numerical values  GeV (or  GeV) and  GeV (or  GeV) are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Measurement of the mass and width of the W boson

The mass and width of the W boson are measured using e⁺e^– → W⁺W^– events from the data sample collected by the OPAL experiment at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 170 GeV and 209 GeV. The mass (m_W) and width (Γ_W) are determined using direct reconstruction of the kinematics of W⁺W^– → and W⁺W^– → events. When combined with previous OPAL measurements using W⁺W^– → events and the dependence on of the WW production cross-section at threshold, the results are determined to be

Determination of the η and η<Superscript>′</Superscript> mixing angle from the pseudoscalar transition form factors

The possible range of the η– mixing angle is determined from the transition form factors F_ηγ(Q²) and with the help of up-to-date experimental data. For this purpose, the quark-flavor mixing scheme is adopted and the pseudoscalar transition form factors are calculated in the framework of light-cone pQCD, in which the transverse-momentum corrections and the contributions beyond the leading Fock state have been carefully taken into consideration. We construct a phenomenological expression to estimate the contributions to the form factors beyond the leading Fock state, based on their asymptotic behavior at Q²→0 and . By taking the quark-flavor mixing scheme, our results lead to , where the first error comes from the experimental uncertainty and the second error from the uncertainties of the parameters of the wavefunction. The possible intrinsic charm component in η and is discussed, and our present analysis also disfavors a large intrinsic charm component in η and , e.g. . PACS 13.40.Gp; 12.38.Bx; 14.40.Aq     

Measurement of high-<Emphasis Type="Italic">Q</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript> charged current cross sections in <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript> + </Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Cross sections for e ⁺ p charged current deep inelastic scattering at a centre-of-mass energy of have been determined with an integrated luminosity of collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The differential cross sections , and for are presented. In addition, has been measured in the kinematic range and . The predictions of the Standard Model agree well with the measured cross sections. The mass of the W boson propagator is determined to be from a fit to . The chiral structure of the Standard Model is also investigated in terms of the (1-y)² dependence of the double-differential cross section. The structure-function has been extracted by combining the measurements presented here with previous ZEUS results from e ^- p scattering, extending the measurement obtained in a neutrino-nucleus scattering experiment to a significantly higher Q ² region.Received: 17 July 2003, Published online: 12 November 2003 ^a supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) ^b supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), under contract numbers HZ1GUA 2, HZ1GUB 0, HZ1PDA 5, HZ1VFA 5 ^c supported by the MINERVA Gesellschaft für Forschung GmbH, the Israel Science Foundation, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and the Benozyio Center for High Energy Physics ^d supported by the German-Israeli Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation ^e supported by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) ^f supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its grants for Scientific Research ^g supported by the Korean Ministry of Education and Korea Science and Engineering Foundation ^h supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Research on Matter (FOM) ⁱ supported by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, grant no. 620/E-77/SPUB-M/DESY/P-03/DZ 247/2000-2002 ^j partially supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) ^k supported by the Fund for Fundamental Research of Russian Ministry for Science and Education and by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) ^l supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science through funds provided by CICYT ^m supported by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, UK ⁿ supported by the US Department of Energy ^o supported by the US National Science Foundation ^p supported by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, grant no. 112/E-356/SPUB-M/DESY/P-03/DZ 301/2000-2002, 2 P03B 13922 ^q supported by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research, grant no. 115/E-343/SPUB-M/DESY/P-03/DZ 121/2001-2002, 2 P03B 07022     

Measurement of the W boson mass and width in e+e- collisions at LEP

The mass of the W boson is determined from the direct reconstruction of W decays in WW→qq̄qq̄ and WW→ℓνqq̄ events in e⁺e^- collisions at LEP. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 683 pb^-1 collected with the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. To minimise any effect from colour reconnection a new procedure is adopted in which low energy particles are not considered in the mass determination from the qq̄qq̄ channel. The combined result from all channels is where FSI represents the possible effects of final state interactions in the qq̄qq̄ channel and LEP indicates the uncertainty in the beam energy. From two-parameter fits to the W mass and width, the W width is found to be      

Jet production in charged current deep inelastic <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript> + </Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> scatteringat HERA

The production rates and substructure of jets have been studied in charged current deep inelastic e ⁺ p scattering for Q ² > 200 GeV² with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110.5 pb^-1. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented for jets with transverse energies GeV and pseudorapidities in the range . Dijet cross sections are presented for events with a jet having GeV and a second jet having GeV. Measurements of the mean subjet multiplicity, , of the inclusive jet sample are presented. Predictions based on parton-shower Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD calculations are compared to the measurements. The value of , determined from at for jets with GeV, is . The mean subjet multiplicity as a function of Q ² is found to be consistent with that measured in NC DIS.Received: 5 June 2003, Published online: 10 October 2003     

Measurement of W-pair production in e<Superscript> + </Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript> collisions at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV

The W ⁺ W^- production cross section is measured from a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 683 pb^-1, collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. Individual cross sections for the different topologies arising from W decays into leptons or hadrons, as well as the total W-pair cross section are given at eight centre-of-mass energies. The results are found to be in agreement with recently developed Standard Model calculations at the one percent level. The hadronic branching fraction of the W boson is measured to be = 67.13 0.37(stat.) 0.15(syst.)%, from which the CKM matrix element is determined to be 0.958 0.017(stat.) 0.008(syst.)Received: 1 October 2004, Published online: 15 November 2004     

Measurement of the strong coupling αS from the four-jet rate in e+e- annihilation using JADE data

Data from e⁺e^- annihilation into hadrons collected by the JADE experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 14 GeV and 44 GeV are used to study the four-jet event production rate as a function of the Durham jet algorithm’s resolution parameter y_cut. The four-jet rate is compared to QCD next-to-leading order calculations including resummation of large logarithms in the next-to-leading logarithmic approximation. The strong coupling measured from the four-jet rate is in agreement with the world average.     

Measurement of the mass and width of the W boson in e+e- collisions at ?s\sqrt{s} = 161–209 GeV

A measurement of the W boson mass and width has been performed by the DELPHI collaboration using the data collected during the full LEP2 programme (1996–2000). The data sample has an integrated luminosity of 660 pb^-1 and was collected over a range of centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 209 GeV. Results are obtained by applying the method of direct reconstruction of the mass of the W from its decay products in both the W⁺W^-→ℓν̄_ℓqq̄’ and W⁺W^-→qq̄’q̄q’ channels. The W mass result for the combined data set is where FSI represents the uncertainty due to final state interaction effects in the qq̄’q̄q’ channel, and LEP represents that arising from the knowledge of the collision energy of the accelerator. The combined value for the W width is These results supersede all values previously published by the DELPHI collaboration. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Carlo Caso.     

NLO contributions to <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis>→<Emphasis Type="Italic">KK</Emphasis><Superscript>*</Superscript> decays in the pQCD approach

We calculate the important next-to-leading-order (NLO) contributions to the B→KK ^* decays from the vertex corrections, the quark loops, and the magnetic penguins in the perturbative QCD (pQCD) factorization approach. The pQCD predictions for the CP-averaged branching ratios are , , and Br(B ⁰→K ⁺ K ^*−+K ⁻ K ^*+)≈1.3×10⁻⁷, which agree well with both the experimental upper limits and the predictions based on the QCD factorization approach. Furthermore, the CP violating asymmetries of the considered decay modes are also evaluated. The NLO pQCD predictions for and decays are and .     

Search for stop production in R-parity-violating supersymmetry at HERA

A search for stop production in R-parity-violating supersymmetry has been performed in e⁺p interactions with the ZEUS detector at HERA, using an integrated luminosity of 65 pb^-1. At HERA, the R-parity-violating coupling λ’ allows resonant squark production, . Since the lowest-mass squark state in most supersymmetry models is the light stop, , this search concentrated on production of , followed either by a direct R-parity-violating decay, or by the gauge decay to . No evidence for stop production was found and limits were set on λ’₁₃₁ as a function of the stop mass in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The results have also been interpreted in terms of constraints on the parameters of the minimal supergravity model.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis>(3872) and other possible heavy molecular states

We perform a systematic study of the possible molecular states composed of a pair of heavy mesons such as , , in the framework of the meson exchange model. The exchanged mesons include the pseudoscalar, scalar and vector mesons. Through our investigation, we find the following results. (1) The structure X(3764) is not a molecular state. (2) There exists strong attraction in the range r<1 fm for the system with J=0,1. If future experiments confirm Z ⁺(4051) as a loosely bound molecular state, its quantum number is probably J ^P =0⁺. Its partner state Φ ^**0 may be searched for in the π ⁰ χ _c1 channel. (3) Vector meson exchange provides strong attraction in the channel together with pion exchange. A bound state solution may exist with a reasonable cutoff parameter Λ∼1.4 GeV. X(3872) may be accommodated as a molecular state dynamically although drawing a very definite conclusion needs further investigation. (4) The molecular state may exist.     

An NLO QCD analysis of inclusive cross-section and jet-production data from the ZEUS experiment

The ZEUS inclusive differential cross-section data from HERA, for charged and neutral current processes taken with e ⁺ and e^- beams, together with differential cross-section data on inclusive jet production in e ⁺ p scattering and dijet production in scattering, have been used in a new NLO QCD analysis to extract the parton distribution functions of the proton. The input of jet-production data constrains the gluon and allows an accurate extraction of at NLO; An additional uncertainty from the choice of scales is estimated as . This is the first extraction of from HERA data alone.