The fragmentation of b quarks into B mesons is studied with four million hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH experiment during the years 1991-1995. A semi-exclusive reconstruction of B->l nu D(*) decays is performed, by combining lepton candidates with fully reconstructed D(*) mesons while the neutrino energy is estimated from the missing energy of the event. The mean value of xewd, the energy of the weakly-decaying B meson normalised to the beam energy, is found to be mxewd = 0.716 +- 0.006 (stat) +- 0.006 (syst) using a model-independent method; the corresponding value for the energy of the leading B meson is mxel = 0.736 +- 0.006 (stat) +- 0.006 (syst). The reconstructed spectra are compared with different fragmentation models.
The full statistics of hadronic Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector are analysed to measure, by three methods, the ratio, ${\rm R_c}$ , of the partial decay
The B<sup loc="post">0</sup> - B̄<sup loc="post">0</sup> average mixing parameter <math altimg="si1.gif"><rm><ovl type="bar" style="s">χ</ovl></rm></math> and b forward-backward asymmetry AFB<sup loc="post">0</sup>(b) are measured from a sample of about 4 200 000 Z → qq̄ events recorded with the ALEPH detector at LEP in the years 1990–1995. High transverse momentum electrons and muons produced in b semileptonic decays provide the tag of the quark flavour and of its charge. The average mixing parameter and the pole b asymmetry are measured to be <math altimg="si1.gif"><rm><ovl type="bar" style="s">χ</ovl></rm></math> = 0.1246 ± 0.0051stat ± 0.0052syst, AFB<sup loc="post">0</sup>(b) = 0.1008 ± 0.0043stat ± 0.0028syst. The value of sin<sup loc="post">2</sup>θw<sup loc="post">eff</sup> = 0.23198 ± 0.00092 is extracted from the asymmetry measurement.
Using a sample of about 1.46 million hadronic Z decays collected between 1991 and 1993 with the ALEPH detector at LEP, the energy distribution of the B 0 and B ± mesons produced at the Z resonance is measured by reconstructing semileptonic decays B → ℓ ν ℓ D(X) or B → ℓν ℓ D ∗+ (X) . The charmed mesons are reconstructed through the decay modes D 0 → K − π + , D 0 → K − π + π − π + , D + → K − π + π + and D ∗+ → D 0 π + . The neutrino energy is estimated from the missing energy in the lepton hemisphere. Accounting for B ∗ and B ∗∗ production, the shape of the scaled energy distribution x E (b) for mesons containing a b quark is compared to the predictions of different fragmentation models. The mean value of x E (b) is found to be 〈 x E (b) 〉 = 0.715 ± 0.007(stat) ± 0.013(syst).
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Searches for supersymmetric particles in channels with one or more photons and missing energy have been performed with data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP. The data consist of 11.1 pb-1 at $\sqrt{s} = 161 GeV$, 1.1 pb-1 at 170 GeV and 9.5 pb-1 at 172 GeV. The e+e- -> nunu+photon cross section is measured. The data are in good agreement with predictions based on the Standard Model, and are used to set upper limits on the cross sections for anomalous photon production. These limits are compared to two different SUSY models and used to set limits on the neutralino mass. A limit of 71 GeV/c^2 at 95% C.L. is set on the mass of the lightest neutralino ($\tau_{\chi_{1}^{0}} \leq $ 3 ns) for the gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking and LNZ models.
An improved measurement of the average b hadron lifetime is performed using a sample of 1.5 million hadronic Z decays, collected during the 1991–1993 runs of ALEPH, with the silicon vertex detector fully operational. This uses the three-dimensional impact parameter distribution of lepton tracks coming from semileptonic b decays and yields an average b hadron lifetime of 1.533 ± 0.013 ± 0.022 ps.
The inclusive charm production rate in W decays is measured from a study of the properties of final state particles. The sample of W pairs is selected from 67.7 pb −1 collected by ALEPH in 1996 and 1997 at centre-of-mass energies near 172 and 183 GeV in the channels W + W − →4q and W + W − →ℓνq q ̄ . The branching fraction of hadronic W decays to a final state containing a c quark, R W c = Γ(W→cX)/Γ(W→hadrons), is measured to be 0.51±0.05 stat ±0.03 syst . This allows a direct determination of the CKM matrix element |V cs |=1.00±0.11 stat ±0.07 syst .
Charged particle multiplicity distributions have been measured with the ALEPH detector in restricted rapidity intervals |Y| ≤0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 along the thrust axis and also without restriction on rapidity. The distribution for the full range can be parametrized by a log-normal distribution. For smaller windows one finds a more complicated structure, which is understood to arise from perturbative effects. The negative-binomial distribution fails to describe the data both with and without the restriction on rapidity. The JETSET model is found to describe all aspects of the data while the width predicted by HERWIG is in significant disagreement.
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