Precise Measurement of the b-Quark Fragmentation Function in Z0 Boson Decays

• Main Authors: Taylor, Frank E. (Contributor), Dong, D. N. (Contributor), Verdier, Robin (Contributor), Cowan, Ray Franklin (Contributor), Lia, V. (Contributor), Osborne, Louis S. (Contributor), Yamamoto, R. K. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2010-02-05T15:55:17Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We have developed a new technique for inclusive reconstruction of the energy of B hadrons. The excellent efficiency and resolution of this technique allow us to make the most precise determination of the b-quark fragmentation function, using e[superscript +]e[superscript -]→Z[superscript 0] decays recorded in the SLAC Large Detector experiment. We compared our measurement with the predictions of a number of fragmentation models. We excluded several of these models and measured the average scaled energy of weakly decaying B hadrons to be 〈x[subscript B]〉 = 0.714±0.005(stat)±0.007(syst)±0.002 (model dependence).
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy
Japan-U.S. Cooperative Research Project on High Energy Physics
Department of Energy
U.K. Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Korea Science and Engineering Foundation