Previously published and as yet unpublished QCD results obtained with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 are presented. The unprecedented statistics allows detailed studies of both perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of strong interactions to be carried out using hadronic Z and tau decays. The studies presented include precise determinations of the strong coupling constant, tests of its flavour independence, tests of the SU(3) gauge structure of QCD, study of coherence effects, and measurements of single-particle inclusive distributions and two-particle correlations for many identified baryons and mesons.
We present improved measurements of the differential production rates of stable charged particles in hadronic Z0 decays, and of charged pions, kaons and protons identified over a wide momentum range using the SLD Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector. In addition to flavor-inclusive Z0 decays, measurements are made for Z0 decays into light (u, d, s), c and b primary flavors, selected using the upgraded Vertex Detector. Large differences between the flavors are observed that are qualitatively consistent with expectations based upon previously measured production and decay properties of heavy hadrons. These results are used to test the predictions of QCD in the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation, with the ansatz of Local Parton-Hadron Duality, and the predictions of three models of the hadronization process. The light-flavor results provide improved tests of these predictions, as they do not include the contribution of heavy-hadron production and decay; the heavy-flavor results provide complementary model tests. In addition we have compared hadron and antihadron production in light quark (as opposed to antiquark) jets. Differences are observed at high momentum for all three charged hadron species, providing direct probes of leading particle effects, and stringent constraints on models.
We present a measurement of the b-quark inclusive fragmentation function in Z0 decays using a novel kinematic B-hadron energy reconstruction technique. The measurement was performed using 350,000 hadronic Z0 events recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC between 1997 and 1998. We compared the sacled B-hadron energy distribution with models of b-quark fragmentation and with several ad hoc functional forms. A number of models and functions are excluded by the data. The average scaled energy of weakly-decaying B hadrons was measured to be <x_B>= 0.709 +-0.003 (stat) +-0.003 (syst) +-0.002 (model).
We have measured the differential production cross sections as a function of scaled momentum x_p=2p/E_cm of the identified hadron species pi+, K+, K0, K*0, phi, p, Lambda0, and of the corresponding antihadron species in inclusive hadronic Z0 decays, as well as separately for Z0 decays into light (u, d, s), c and b flavors. Clear flavor dependences are observed, consistent with expectations based upon previously measured production and decay properties of heavy hadrons. These results were used to test the QCD predictions of Gribov and Lipatov, the predictions of QCD in the Modified Leading Logarithm Approximation with the ansatz of Local Parton-Hadron Duality, and the predictions of three fragmentation models. Ratios of production of different hadron species were also measured as a function of x_p and were used to study the suppression of strange meson, strange and non-strange baryon, and vector meson production in the jet fragmentation process. The light-flavor results provide improved tests of the above predictions, as they remove the contribution of heavy hadron production and decay from that of the rest of the fragmentation process. In addition we have compared hadron and antihadron production as a function of x_p in light quark (as opposed to antiquark) jets. Differences are observed at high x_p, providing direct evidence that higher-momentum hadrons are more likely to contain a primary quark or antiquark. The differences for pseudoscalar and vector kaons provide new measurements of strangeness suppression for high-x_p fragmentation products.
A study of the fragmentation properties of charm and bottom quarks intoD mesons is presented. From 263 700Z0 hadronic decays collected in 1991 with the DELPHI detector at the LEP collider,D0,D+ andD*+ are reconstructed in the modesK−π+,K−π+K+ andD0π+ followed byD0→K−π+, respectively. The fractional decay widths\(\Gamma {{(Z^0\to {D \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {D {\bar D}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\bar D}}X)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{(Z^0\to {D \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {D {\bar D}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\bar D}}X)} {\Gamma _h }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\Gamma _h }}\) are determined, and first results are presented for the production ofD mesons from\(c\bar c\) and\(b\bar b\) events separately. The average energy fraction ofD*± in charm quark fragmentation is found to be 〈XE(D*)〉c=0.487±0.015 (stat)±0.005 (sys.). Assuming that the fraction ofDs and charm-baryons produced at LEP is similar to that around 10 GeV, theZ0 partial width into charm quark pairs is determined to beΓc/Γh=0.187±0.031 (stat)±0.023 (sys). The probability for ab quark to fragment into\(\bar B_s \) orb-baryons is inferred to be 0.268±0.094 (stat)±0.100 (sys) from the measured probability that it fragments into a\(\bar B^0 \) orB−.
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