Direct measurement of Ab at the Z0 pole using a lepton tag

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise direct measurement of the parity violation parameter Ab at the Z0 pole using lepton tags from semileptonic b quark decays, employing advanced identification and analysis techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a new lepton tagging algorithm, improved background treatment, and vertexing methods for measuring Ab from Z0 decays with high polarization.

Findings

Measured Ab with approximately 3% statistical error

Utilized a large dataset of 550,000 Z0 decays from 1993-1998

Enhanced analysis methods for lepton identification and background discrimination

Abstract

We present a direct measurement of the parity violation parameter Ab, derived from the left-right forward-backward asymmetry of b quarks tagged via leptons from semileptonic decays. The lepton identification algorithm combines information from tracking, calorimetry and from the SLD Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector. The value of Ab is extracted using a maximum likelihood fit to the differential cross section for fermion production. Vertexing information and decay kinematics have been used to discriminate among the different sources of tagged leptons. A new treatment of mixing effects and of background contamination has been introduced and a new vertexing algorithm has been used in the muon analysis. Based on the 1993-1998 SLD sample of 550K hadronic Z0 decays with highly polarized electron beams, we have measured Ab with a ~3% statistical error.