Determination of the b Quark Mass at the Z Mass Scale

TL;DR

This paper measures the b quark mass at the Z boson scale using jet rate differences in Z decays, confirming the QCD prediction of a scale-dependent quark mass with high precision.

Contribution

It provides a novel determination of the b quark mass at the Z scale using jet rate comparisons and advanced QCD calculations, confirming the running of the quark mass.

Findings

Determined mb(MZ) = 2.67 GeV with uncertainties.

Evolved to mb(mb) = 3.95 GeV, consistent with threshold results.

Ruled out a constant mass at 3.9 sigma significance.

Abstract

In hadronic decays of Z bosons recorded with the OPAL detector at LEP, events containing b quarks were selected using the long lifetime of b flavoured hadrons. Comparing the 3-jet rate in b events with that in d,u,s and c quark events, a significant difference was observed. Using Order(alpha_s squared) calculations for massive quarks, this difference was used to determine the b quark mass in the MSbar renormalisation scheme at the scale of the Z boson mass. By combining the results from seven different jet finders the running b quark mass was determined to be mb(MZ) = (2.67 +/- 0.03(stat) +0.29/-0.37(syst) +/- 0.19(theo.)) GeV. Evolving this value to the b quark mass scale itself yields mb(mb) = (3.95 +0.52/-0.62) GeV, consistent with results obtained at the b quark production threshold. This determination confirms the QCD expectation of a scale dependent quark mass. A constant mass is ruled out by 3.9 standard deviations.