Previously published and as yet unpublished QCD results obtained with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 are presented.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.
Unfolded values of the the mean multiplicity and dispersion of the multiplicity distributions integrated over the rapidity region -1.5 to 1.5.
Inclusive γ ∗ γ interactions to hadronic final states where one scattered electron or positron is detected in the electromagnetic calorimeters have been studied in the LEP 1 data taken by ALEPH from 1991 to 1995. The event sample has been used to measure the hadronic structure function of the photon F 2 γ in three bins with 〈 Q 2 〉 of 9.9, 20.7 and 284 GeV 2 .
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
The cross sections for single vector boson production in the We ν and Zee channels are measured from the data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP for centre-of-mass energies between 183 and 209 GeV. These data correspond to a total integratedluminosity of 683 pb −1 . Single-W production is studied in both hadronic and leptonic decay channels. Hadronic and dimuon decays are used for single-Z production. The measured cross sections agree with the Standard Model predictions.
The hadronic photon structure function $F_2^\gamma(x,Q^2)$ is measured from data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP. At centre-of-mass energies between
Inclusive beauty-quark production in two-photon collisions has been measured at LEP using an integrated luminosity of 698 pb-1 collected by the ALEPH detector with sqrt(s) between 130 and 209 GeV. The b quarks were identified using lifetime information. The cross section is found to be sigma(e+ e- --> e+ e- b \bar{b} X) = (5.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.8 (syst)) pb which is consistent with Next-to-Leading Order QCD.
Exclusive production of π and K meson pairs in two photon collisions is measured with ALEPH data collected between 1992 and 2000. Cross-sections are presented as a function of cos θ ∗ and invariant mass, for | cos θ ∗ |<0.6 and invariant masses between 2.0 and 6.0 GeV/ c 2 (2.25 and 4.0 GeV/ c 2 ) for pions (kaons). The shape of the distributions are found to be well described by QCD predictions but the data have a significantly higher normalization.
Single W production is studied in the data recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 161 and 183 GeV. The cross section is measured to be σ W =0.41±0.17(stat.)±0.04(syst.) pb at 183 GeV, consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Limits on non-standard WW γ couplings are deduced as −1.6<κ γ <1.5 (λ γ =0) and −1.6<λ γ <1.6 (κ γ =1) at 95% C.L. A search for effectively invisible decays of the W boson in W pair production is performed, leading to an upper limit on the branching ratio of 1.3% ( Γ inv =27 MeV ) at 95% C.L.
The cross sections and forward-backward asymmetries of hadronic and leptonic events produced in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130-183 GeV are presented. Results for ee, mumu, tautau, qq, bb and cc production show no significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions. This enable constraints to be set upon physics beyond the Standard Model such as four-fermion contact interactions, leptoquarks, Z' bosons and R-parity violating squarks and sneutrinos. Limits on the energy scale Lambda of eeff contact interactions are typically in the range from 2-10 TeV. Limits on R-parity violating sneutrinos reach masses of a few hundred GeV for large values of their Yukawa couplings.
The inclusive production of D ∗± mesons in photon-photon collisions has been measured by the Aleph experiment at LEP with a beam energy of 45 GeV. The D ∗+ are detected in their decay to D 0 π + with the D 0 observed in three separate decay modes: (1) K − π + , (2) K − π + π 0 and (3) K − π + π − π + , and analagously for the D ∗− modes. A total of 33 events was observed from an integrated luminosity of 73 pb −1 which corresponds to a cross section for Σ( e + e − → e + e − D ∗± X ) of 155 ± 33 ± 21 pb. This result is compatible with both the direct production γγ → c c in the Born approximation and with a more complete calculation which includes both radiative QCD corrections and contributions in which one of the photons is first resolved into its quark and gluon constituents. The shapes of distributions for events containing a D ∗+ are found to be better described by the latter.