W boson polarisation at LEP2.

The OPAL collaboration Abbiendi, G. ; Ainsley, C. ; Akesson, P.F. ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 585 (2004) 223-236, 2004.
Inspire Record 635790 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.49660

Elements of the spin density matrix for W bosons in e+e- -> W+W- -> qqln events are measured from data recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP. This information is used calculate polarised differential cross-sections and to search for CP-violating effects. Results are presented for W bosons produced in e+e- collisions with centre-of-mass energies between 183 GeV and 209 GeV. The average fraction of W bosons that are longitudinally polarised is found to be (23.9 +- 2.1 +- 1.1)% compared to a Standard Model prediction of (23.9 +- 0.1)%. All results are consistent with CP conservation.

7 data tables

The fraction of longitudinal polarization for leptonically and hadronically decaying W bosons. The average values for all the centre of mass energies and for both lepton and hadron decay combined are also given.

The luminosity weighted average over all the centre of mass energies of the diagonal elements of the RHO++ and RHO-- SDM as a function of the cosine of the angle of the W- boson for the leptonic decay channel.

The luminosity weighted average over all the centre of mass energies of the diagonal element of the RHO00 SDM as a function of the cosine of the angle of the W- boson for both leptonic and hadronic decay channels, and combined.

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