17429076
Search for Higgs bosons decaying to WW in e+e- collisions at LEP
A search for Higgs bosons produced in association with a fermion pair, and decaying to WW, is performed with the data collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-of-mass energies ranging from 191 to 209 GeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 453.2 pb-1. Thirteen exclusive selections are developed according to the different final state topologies. No statistically significant evidence for a Higgs boson decaying into a WW pair has been found. An upper limit is derived, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, on the product of the e+e-→Hff̄ cross section and the H→WW branching ratio. The data on the search for H→WW are combined with previously published ALEPH results on the search for H→γγ, to significantly extend the limits on the mass of a fermiophobic Higgs boson.
15227858
Measurement of W pair production in e+ e- collisions at 183-GeV
Abstract The production of W + W − pairs is analysed in a data sample collected by ALEPH at a mean centre-of-mass energy of 182.7 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 57 pb −1 . Cross sections are given for different topologies of W decays into leptons or hadrons. Under Standard Model assumptions for the W-pair production and decay, the W-pair cross section is measured to be 15.57±0.62 (stat.) ±0.29 (syst.) pb . Using also the W-pair data samples collected by ALEPH at lower centre-of-mass energies, the decay branching ratio of the W boson into hadrons is measured to be B(W→hadrons) =68.93±1.21 (stat.) ±0.51 (syst.) % , allowing a determination of the CKM matrix element |V cs |=1.043±0.058 (stat.) ±0.026 (syst.) . The agreement of the cross sections with the Standard Model prediction allows a limit to be set on the W decay rate to undetectable final states.
122002257
Production of D**s mesons in hadronic Z decays
The production rates of the orbitally excited Ds** mesons, Ds1 and Ds2*, are measured with the 4.1 million hadronic Z decays recorded by the ALEPH detector during 1991--1995. The Ds** mesons are reconstructed in the decay modes Ds1+ -> D*+ K0, Ds1+ -> D*0 K+ and Ds2*+ -> D0 K+. The production rate of the Ds1 is measured to be n(Z->Ds1+-)=(0.52+-0.09+-0.06)%, under the assumption that the two considered decay modes of the Ds1 saturate the branching ratio. The production rate of the Ds2* is determined to be n(Z->Ds2*+-)=(0.83+-0.29+0.07-0.13)%, assuming that the branching fraction of the decay Ds2*+ -> D0 K+ is 45%. The production rates in Z->cc and Z->bbar decays are measured separately.
123148086
Charm counting in b decays
The inclusive production of charmed particles in decays has been measured from the yield of D0, D+, Ds+ and Λc+ decays in a sample of events with high b purity collected with the ALEPH detector from 1992 to 1995. From these measurements, adding the charmonia production rate and an estimate of the charmed strange baryon contribution, the average number of charm quarks per b decay is determined to be nc = 1.230 ± 0.036 ± 0.038 ± 0.053, where the uncertainties are due to statistics, systematic effects and branching ratios, respectively.
91183149
Measurement of the tau lepton lifetime
The mean lifetime of the lepton is measured in a sample of 25700 pairs collected in 1992 with the ALEPH detector at LEP. A new analysis of the 1-1 topology events is introduced. In this analysis, the dependence of the impact parameter sum distribution on the daughter track momenta is taken into account, yielding improved precision compared to other impact parameter sum methods. Three other analyses of the oneand three-prong decays are updated with increased statistics. The measured lifetime is 293:5 3:1 1:7 fs. Including previous (1989{1991) ALEPH measurements, the combined lifetime is 293:7 2:7 1:6 fs. (Submitted to Physics Letters B) See the following pages for the list of authors. The ALEPH Collaboration D. Buskulic, D. Casper, I. De Bonis, D. Decamp, P. Ghez, C. Goy, J.-P. Lees, A. Lucotte, M.-N. Minard, P. Odier, B. Pietrzyk Laboratoire de Physique des Particules (LAPP), INP-CNRS, 74019 Annecy-le-Vieux Cedex, France F. Ariztizabal, M. Chmeissani, J.M. Crespo, I. Efthymiopoulos, E. Fernandez, M. Fernandez-Bosman, V. Gaitan, Ll. Garrido, M. Martinez, S. Orteu, A. Pacheco, C. Padilla, F. Palla, A. Pascual, J.A. Perlas, F. Sanchez, F. Teubert Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain A. Colaleo, D. Creanza, M. de Palma, A. Farilla, G. Gelao, M. Girone, G. Iaselli, G. Maggi, M. Maggi, N. Marinelli, S. Natali, S. Nuzzo, A. Ranieri, G. Raso, F. Romano, F. Ruggieri, G. Selvaggi, L. Silvestris, P. Tempesta, G. Zito Dipartimento di Fisica, INFN Sezione di Bari, 70126 Bari, Italy X. Huang, J. Lin, Q. Ouyang, T. Wang, Y. Xie, R. Xu, S. Xue, J. Zhang, L. Zhang, W. Zhao Institute of High-Energy Physics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, The People's Republic of China G. Bonvicini, M. Cattaneo, P. Comas, P. Coyle, H. Drevermann, A. Engelhardt, R.W. Forty, M. Frank, R. Hagelberg, J. Harvey, R. Jacobsen, P. Janot, B. Jost, E. Kneringer, J. Knobloch, I. Lehraus, C. Markou, E.B. Martin, P. Mato, A. Minten, R. Miquel, T. Oest, P. Palazzi, J.R. Pater, J.F. Pusztaszeri, F. Ranjard, P. Rensing, L. Rolandi, D. Schlatter, M. Schmelling, O. Schneider, W. Tejessy, I.R. Tomalin, A. Venturi, H. Wachsmuth, W. Wiedenmann, T. Wildish, W. Witzeling, J. Wotschack European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Z. Ajaltouni, M. Bardadin-Otwinowska, A. Barres, C. Boyer, A. Falvard, P. Gay, C. Guicheney, P. Henrard, J. Jousset, B. Michel, S. Monteil, J-C. Montret, D. Pallin, P. Perret, F. Podlyski, J. Proriol, J.-M. Rossignol, F. Saadi Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, Universit e Blaise Pascal, INP-CNRS, Clermont-Ferrand, 63177 Aubi ere, France T. Fearnley, J.B. Hansen, J.D. Hansen, J.R. Hansen, P.H. Hansen, B.S. Nilsson Niels Bohr Institute, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark A. Kyriakis, E. Simopoulou, I. Siotis, A. Vayaki, K. Zachariadou Nuclear Research Center Demokritos (NRCD), Athens, Greece A. Blondel, G. Bonneaud, J.C. Brient, P. Bourdon, L. Passalacqua, A. Roug e, M. Rumpf, R. Tanaka, A. Valassi, M. Verderi, H. Videau Laboratoire de Physique Nucl eaire et des Hautes Energies, Ecole Polytechnique, INP-CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France D.J. Candlin, M.I. Parsons Department of Physics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom E. Focardi, G. Parrini Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit a di Firenze, INFN Sezione di Firenze, 50125 Firenze, Italy M. Corden, M. Del no, C. Georgiopoulos, D.E. Ja e Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 323064052, USA 13;14 A. Antonelli, G. Bencivenni, G. Bologna, F. Bossi, P. Campana, G. Capon, V. Chiarella, G. Felici, P. Laurelli, G. Mannocchi, F. Murtas, G.P. Murtas, M. Pepe-Altarelli Laboratori Nazionali dell'INFN (LNF-INFN), 00044 Frascati, Italy S.J. Dorris, A.W. Halley, I. ten Have, I.G. Knowles, J.G. Lynch, W.T. Morton, V. O'Shea, C. Raine, P. Reeves, J.M. Scarr, K. Smith, M.G. Smith, A.S. Thompson, F. Thomson, S. Thorn, R.M. Turnbull Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ,United Kingdom U. Becker, O. Braun, C. Geweniger, G. Graefe, P. Hanke, V. Hepp, E.E. Kluge, A. Putzer, B. Rensch, M. Schmidt, J. Sommer, H. Stenzel, K. Tittel, S. Werner, M. Wunsch Institut f ur Hochenergiephysik, Universitat Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Fed. Rep. of Germany R. Beuselinck, D.M. Binnie, W. Cameron, D.J. Colling, P.J. Dornan, N. Konstantinidis, L. Moneta, A. Moutoussi, J. Nash, G. San Martin, J.K. Sedgbeer, A.M. Stacey Department of Physics, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom G. Dissertori, P. Girtler, D. Kuhn, G. Rudolph Institut f ur Experimentalphysik, Universitat Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria C.K. Bowdery, T.J. Brodbeck, P. Colrain, G. Crawford, A.J. Finch, F. Foster, G. Hughes, T. Sloan, E.P. Whelan, M.I. Williams Department of Physics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YB, United Kingdom A. Galla, A.M. Greene, K. Kleinknecht, G. Quast, J. Raab, B. Renk, H.-G. Sander, R. Wanke, P. van Gemmeren C. Zeitnitz Institut f ur Physik, Universitat Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Fed. Rep. of Germany J.J. Aubert, A.M. Bencheikh, C. Benchouk, A. Bonissent, G. Bujosa, D. Calvet, J. Carr, C. Diaconu, F. Etienne, M. Thulasidas, D. Nicod, P. Payre, D. Rousseau, M. Talby Centre de Physique des Particules, Facult e des Sciences de Luminy, INP-CNRS, 13288 Marseille, France I. Abt, R. Assmann, C. Bauer, W. Blum, D. Brown, H. Dietl, F. Dydak, G. Ganis, C. Gotzhein, K. Jakobs, H. Kroha, G. L utjens, G. Lutz, W. M anner, H.-G. Moser, R. Richter, A. Rosado-Schlosser, S. Schael, R. Settles, H. Seywerd, R. St. Denis, G. Wolf Max-Planck-Institut f ur Physik, Werner-Heisenberg-Institut, 80805 M unchen, Fed. Rep. of Germany R. Alemany, J. Boucrot, O. Callot, A. Cordier, F. Courault, M. Davier, L. Du ot, J.-F. Grivaz, Ph. Heusse, M. Jacquet, D.W. Kim, F. Le Diberder, J. Lefran cois, A.-M. Lutz, G. Musolino, I. Nikolic, H.J. Park, I.C. Park, M.-H. Schune, S. Simion, J.-J. Veillet, I. Videau Laboratoire de l'Acc el erateur Lin eaire, Universit e de Paris-Sud, INP-CNRS, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France D. Abbaneo, P. Azzurri, G. Bagliesi, G. Batignani, S. Bettarini, C. Bozzi, G. Calderini, M. Carpinelli, M.A. Ciocci, V. Ciulli, R. Dell'Orso, R. Fantechi, I. Ferrante, F. Fidecaro, L. Fo a, F. Forti, A. Giassi, M.A. Giorgi, A. Gregorio, F. Ligabue, A. Lusiani, P.S. Marrocchesi, A. Messineo, G. Rizzo, G. Sanguinetti, A. Sciab a, P. Spagnolo, J. Steinberger, R. Tenchini, G. Tonelli, G. Triggiani, C. Vannini, P.G. Verdini, J. Walsh Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universit a, INFN Sezione di Pisa, e Scuola Normale Superiore, 56010 Pisa, Italy A.P. Betteridge, G.A. Blair, L.M. Bryant, F. Cerutti, Y. Gao, M.G. Green, D.L. Johnson, T. Medcalf, Ll.M. Mir, P. Perrodo, J.A. Strong Department of Physics, Royal Holloway & Bedford New College, University of London, Surrey TW20 OEX, United Kingdom V. Bertin, D.R. Botterill, R.W. Cli t, T.R. Edgecock, S. Haywood, M. Edwards, P. Maley, P.R. Norton, J.C. Thompson Particle Physics Dept., Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 OQX, United Kingdom B. Bloch-Devaux, P. Colas, S. Emery, W. Kozanecki, E. Lan con, M.C. Lemaire, E. Locci, B. Marx, P. Perez, J. Rander, J.-F. Renardy, A. Roussarie, J.-P. Schuller, J. Schwindling, A. Trabelsi, B. Vallage CEA, DAPNIA/Service de Physique des Particules, CE-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France R.P. Johnson, H.Y. Kim, A.M. Litke, M.A. McNeil, G. Taylor Institute for Particle Physics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA A. Beddall, C.N. Booth, R. Boswell, S. Cartwright, F. Combley, I. Dawson, A. Koksal, M. Letho, W.M. Newton, C. Rankin, L.F. Thompson Department of Physics, University of She eld, She eld S3 7RH, United Kingdom A. Bohrer, S. Brandt, G. Cowan, E. Feigl, C. Grupen, G. Lutters, J. Minguet-Rodriguez, F. Rivera, P. Saraiva, L. Smolik, F. Stephan, Fachbereich Physik, Universitat Siegen, 57068 Siegen, Fed. Rep. of Germany M. Apollonio, L. Bosisio, R. Della Marina, G. Giannini, B. Gobbo, F. Ragusa Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit a di Trieste e INFN Sezione di Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy J. Rothberg, S. Wasserbaech Experimental Elementary Particle Physics, University of Washington, WA 98195 Seattle, U.S.A. S.R. Armstrong, L. Bellantoni, P. Elmer, Z. Feng, D.P.S. Ferguson, Y.S. Gao, S. Gonz alez, J. Grahl, J.L. Harton, O.J. Hayes, H. Hu, P.A. McNamara III, J.M. Nachtman, W. Orejudos, Y.B. Pan, Y. Saadi, M. Schmitt, I.J. Scott, V. Sharma, J.D. Turk, A.M. Walsh, Sau Lan Wu, X. Wu, J.M. Yamartino, M. Zheng, G. Zobernig Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA Now at CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. Deceased. Now at Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit a di Lecce, 73100 Lecce, Italy. Also Istituto di Fisica Generale, Universit a di Torino, Torino, Italy. Also Istituto di Cosmo-Geo sica del C.N.R., Torino, Italy. Supported by the Commission of the European Communities, contract ERBCHBICT941234. Supported by CICYT, Spain. Supported by the National Science Foundation of China. Supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council. Supported by the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. Supported by the US Department of Energy, grant DE-FG0295-ER40896. On leave from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Supported by the US Department of Energy, contract DE-FG05-92ER40742. Supported by the US Department of Energy, contract DE-FC05-85ER250000. Permanent address: Universitat de Barcelona, 08208 Barcelona, Spain. Supported by the Bundesministerium f ur Forschung und Technologie, Fed. Rep. of Germany. Supported by the Direction des Sciences de la Mati ere, C.E.A. Supported by Fonds zur F orderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Austria. Permanent address: Kangnung National University, Kangnung, Korea. Now at Dipartimento di Fisica, Universit a di Milano, Milano, Italy. Also at CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland. Supported by the US Department of Energy, grant DE-FG0
144007210
A precise determination of the number of families with light neutrinos and of the Z boson partial widths
More extensive and precise results are reported on the parameters of Z decay. On the basis of 20 000 Z decays collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP we find Mz=91.182±0.026 (exp.) ±0.030 (beam) GeV, Γz=2.541±0.056 GeV and σhad0=41.4±0.8 nb. The partial widths for the hadronic and leptonic channels are Γhad=1804±44 MeV, Γe+e−=82.1±3.4 MeV, Γμ+μ−=87.9±6.0 MeV and Γτ+τ−=86.1±5.6 MeV, in good agreement with the standard model. On the basis of the average leptonic width Γl+l−=83.9±2.2 MeV, the effective weak mixing angle is found to be sin2θw(Mz)=0.231±0.008. Usin g the partial widths calculated in the standard model, the number of light neutrino families is Nν=3.01±0.15 (exp.)±0.05 (theor.).
3106682
Possible evidence that pulsars are quark stars
It is a pity that the real state of matter in pulsar‐like stars is still not determined confidently because of the uncertainty about cold matter at supranuclear density, even 40 years after the discovery of pulsar. Nuclear matter (related to neutron stars) is one of the speculations for the inner constitution of pulsars even from the Landau's time more than 70 years ago, but quark matter (related to quark stars) is an alternative due to the fact of asymptotic freedom of interaction between quarks as the standard model of particle physics develops since 1960s. Therefore, one has to focus on astrophysical observations in order to answer what the nature of pulsars is. In this presentation, I would like to summarize possible observational evidence/hints that pulsar‐like stars could be quark stars, and to address achievable clear evidence for quark stars in the future experiments.
119021615
Can the Age Discrepancies of Neutron Stars Be Circumvented by an Accretion-assisted Torque?
It is found that 1E 1207.4-5209 could be a low-mass bare strange star if its small radius or low-altitude cyclotron formation can be identified. The age problems of five sources could be solved by a fossil-disk-assisted torque. The magnetic dipole radiation dominates the evolution of PSR B1757-24 at present, and the others are in propeller (or tracking) phases.
119405995
PSR B1828–11: a precession pulsar torqued by a quark planet?
The pulsar PSR B1828−11 has long-term, highly periodic and correlated variations in both pulse shape and the rate of slow-down. This phenomenon may provide evidence for the precession of the pulsar as suggested previously within the framework of free precession as well as forced. On a presumption of forced precession, we propose a quark planet model to this precession phenomenon instead, in which the pulsar is torqued by a quark planet. We construct this model by constraining the mass of the pulsar (Mpsr), the mass of the planet (Mpl) and the orbital radius of the planet (rpl). Five aspects are considered: the derived relation between Mpsr and rpl, the movement of the pulsar around the centre of mass, the ratio of Mpsr and Mpl, the gravitational wave radiation time-scale of the planetary system, and the death-line criterion. We also calculate the range of the precession period derivative and the gravitational wave strength (at earth) permitted by the model. Under reasonable parameters, the observed phenomenon can be understood by a pulsar (∼10 −4 ‐10 −1 M� ) with a quark planet (∼10 −8 ‐10 −3 M� ) orbiting it. According to the calculations presented, the pulsar would be a quark star because of its low mass, which might eject a lump of quark matter (to become an orbiting planet) during its birth.
16103181
To probe into pulsar's interior through gravitational waves
The gravitational radiation from compact pulsar-like stars depends on the state of dense matter at supranuclear densities, i.e., the nature of pulsar (e.g., either normal neutron stars or quark stars). The solid quark star model is focused for the nature of pulsar-like compact objects. Possible gravitational emission of quark stars (either fluid or solid) during the birth and later lifetime is discussed. Several observational features to distinguish various models for pulsar-like stars are proposed. It is suggested that the gravitational wave behaviors should be mass-dependent. Based on the data from the second LIGO science run, the upper limits of R  ·  θ 1/5 and thus M  ·  θ 3/5 ( M : mass, R : radius, and θ : wobble angle) are provided for those targets of millisecond pulsars.
13118701
The Birth of Quark Stars: Photon-driven Supernovae?
In this Letter we propose a possible mechanism for trying to alleviate the current difficulty in core-collapse supernovae by forming a strange quark star inside the collapsing core. Although the initial long-time cooling behavior of nascent strange stars is dominated by neutrino emissions, thermal emissions including photons and e± pair plasma do play a significant role in the explosion dynamics in this scenario. The key to promoting a successful shock outside a bare strange star is more likely to be the radiation pressure caused by thermal photons rather than neutrinos in conventional models. We observed through calculation that radiation pressure can push the overlying mantle away through photon-electron scattering with energy (the work done by radiation pressure) as much as ~1051 ergs if protoquark stars are born with temperatures higher than ~30-40 MeV. This result not only indicates that strange quark stars are bare since their formations, it could also provide a possible explanation for the formation of fireballs in cosmic long-soft γ-ray bursts associated with supernovae.