The inclusive production of charged hadrons in the collisions of quasi-real photons e+e- -> e+e- +X has been measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The data were taken at e+e- centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the hadrons are compared to theoretical calculations of up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the strong coupling constant alpha{s}. The data are also compared to a measurement by the L3 Collaboration, in which a large deviation from the NLO predictions is observed.
This final analysis of hadronic and leptonic cross-sections and of leptonic forward-backward asymmetries in e+e- collisions with the OPAL detector makes use of the full LEP1 data sample comprising 161 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity and 4.5 x 10^6 selected Z decays. An interpretation of the data in terms of contributions from pure Z exchange and from Z-gamma interference allows the parameters of the Z resonance to be determined in a model-independent way. Our results are in good agreement with lepton universality and consistent with the vector and axial-vector couplings predicted in the Standard Model. A fit to the complete dataset yields the fundamental Z resonance parameters: mZ = 91.1852 +- 0.0030 GeV, GZ = 2.4948 +- 0.0041 GeV, s0h = 41.501 +- 0.055 nb, Rl = 20.823 +- 0.044, and Afb0l = 0.0145 +- 0.0017. Transforming these parameters gives a measurement of the ratio between the decay width into invisible particles and the width to a single species of charged lepton, Ginv/Gl = 5.942 +- 0.027. Attributing the entire invisible width to neutrino decays and assuming the Standard Model couplings for neutrinos, this translates into a measurement of the effective number of light neutrino species, N_nu = 2.984 +- 0.013. Interpreting the data within the context of the Standard Model allows the mass of the top quark, mt = 162 +29-16 GeV, to be determined through its influence on radiative corrections. Alternatively, utilising the direct external measurement of mt as an additional constraint leads to a measurement of the strong coupling constant and the mass of the Higgs boson: alfa_s(mZ) = 0.127 +- 0.005 and mH = 390 +750-280 GeV.
We describe a cone-based jet finding algorithm (similar to that used in\(\bar p\)p experiments), which we have applied to hadronic events recorded using the OPAL detector at LEP. Comparisons are made between jets defined with the cone algorithm and jets found by the “JADE” and “Durham” jet finders usually used ine+e− experiments. Measured jet rates, as a function of the cone size and as a function of the minimum jet energy, have been compared with O(αs2) calculations, from which two complementary measurements\(\alpha _s \left( {M_{Z^0 } } \right)\) have been made. The results are\(\alpha _s \left( {M_{Z^0 } } \right)\)=0.116±0.008 and\(\alpha _s \left( {M_{Z^0 } } \right)\)=0.119±0.008 respectively, where the errors include both experimental and theoretical uncertainties. Measurements are presented of the energy flow inside jets defined using the cone algorithm, and compared with equivalent data from\(\bar p\)p interactions, reported by the CDF collaboration. We find that the jets ine+e− are significantly narrower than those observed in\(\bar p\)p. The main contribution to this effect appears to arise from differences between quark- and gluon-induced jets.
New measurements of the hadronic and leptonic cross sections and of the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries ine+e− collisions are presented. The analysis includes data recorded up to the end of 1991 by the OPAL experiment at LEP, with centre-of-mass energies within ±3 GeV of the Z0 mass. The results are based on a recorded total of 454 000 hadronic and 58 000 leptonic events. A model independent analysis of Z0 parameters based on an extension of the improved Born approximation is presented leading to test of lepton universality and an interpretation of the results within the Standard Model framework. The determination of the mass and width of the Z0 benefit from an improved understanding of the LEP energy calibration.
In this paper an investigation of the production of D ∗ ± mesons produced in e + e − collisions at energies around the Z 0 pole is presented. Based on 115 D ∗ ± mesons with x D∗ 2E D ∗ /E cm > 0.2 the properties of D ∗ mesons produced in the reaction Z 0 → c c are studied. Fixing the yield and the fragmentation function of bottom quarks to the values obtained at LEP using lepton tags, and average energy fraction of the D ∗ ± mesons from primary charmed quarks of 〈x c → D ∗ 〉 = 0.52 ± 0.03 +- 0.01 is found and Γ z 0 →c c = (323 ± 61 ± 35) MeV is determined. The first error is the combined statistical and systematic error from this experiment, and the second the total error from other sources.
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