A study of Z boson pair production in e+e- annihilation at center-of-mass energies near 183 GeV and 189 GeV is reported. Final states containing only leptons, (l+l-l+l- and l+l-nu nubar), quark and lepton pairs, (q qbar l+l-, q qbar nu nubar) and the all-hadronic final state (q qbar q qbar) are considered. In all states with at least one Z boson decaying hadronically, q qbar and b bbar final states are considered separately using lifetime and event-shape tags, thereby improving the cross-section measurement. At sqrt(s) = 189 GeV the Z-pair cross section was measured to be 0.80 (+0.14-0.13, stat.) (+0.06-0.05, syst.) pb, consistent with the Standard Model prediction. At sqrt(s) = 183 GeV the 95% C.L. upper limit is 0.55 pb. Limits on anomalous ZZgamma and ZZZ couplings are derived.
A study of Z-boson pair production in e+e- annihilation at center-of-mass energies between 190 GeV and 209 GeV is reported. Final states containing only leptons, (l+l-l+l- and l+l-nn), quark and lepton pairs, (qql+l-, qqnn) and only hadrons (qqqq) are considered. In all states with at least one Z boson decaying hadronically, lifetime, lepton and event-shape tags are used to separate bb pairs from qq final state. Limits on anomalous ZZgamma and ZZZ couplings are derived from the measured cross sections and from event kinematics using an optimal observable method. Limits on low scale gravity with large dimensions are derived from the cross sections and their dependence on polar angle.
A study of neutral-current four-fermion processes is performed using a data sample corresponding to 55.3 pb −1 of integrated luminosity collected by the L3 detector at LEP at an average centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The neutral-current four-fermion cross sections for final states with a pair of charged leptons plus jets and with four charged leptons are measured to be consistent with the Standard Model predictions. Events with fermion pair masses close to the Z boson mass are selected in all observable final states and the ZZ production cross section is measured to be σ ZZ =0.30 +0.22 +0.07 −0.16 −0.03 pb, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. No evidence for the existence of anomalous triple gauge boson ZZZ and ZZ γ couplings is found and limits on these couplings are set.
Forum