A measurement of the electroweak induced charge asymmetry in e+e−→bb̄

The forward-backward charge asymmetry for the process $\text{e}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{e}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{→}\text{b}\text{b}\text{?}\text{→ μ}{}^{\mathrm{\pm }}\text{+}$ hadrons has been measured using the JADE detector at PETRA. An asymmetry of (?22.8 ± 6.0 ± 2.5)% was observed at an average center of mass energy of 34.6 GeV. For comparison, an asymmetry of ?25.2% is expected on the basis of the standard Glashow-Salam-Weinberg model.