A study of the fully differential inclusive semileptonic B meson decay rate

Citation

Lipeles, Elliot (2004) A study of the fully differential inclusive semileptonic B meson decay rate. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-05102004-100412

Abstract

We present a study of the fully differential inclusive semileptonic B meson decay rate. Using a maximum likelihood t, we extract the fractional contributions from the B -> Xclv processes with Xc = D, D*, D**, and nonresonant Xc, and the process B -> Xulv. From the fit results, we extract moments of B -> Xclv differential decay rate and the partial branching fraction of the B -> Xulv decay in a restricted region of phase space. The region in which the B -> Xulv partial branching fraction is measured is MX < 1:5 GeV/ c2, q2 >11 GeV2 / c4. This measurements is used to extract CKM parameter |Vub| = (4:73+-0:23+-0:82+-0:18+-0:56+-0:66) x 10(^-3), where the uncertainties are due to statistics, detector systematics, B -> Xclv model dependence, B -> Xulv model dependence, and theoretical uncertainties. From the <M2x - M2D> moment, the first moment of the photon energy spectrum in B -> Xs lambda, and the semileptonic B branching fraction, we extract the CKM parameter |Vcb| = (4:12 +- .10 +- 0.09 +- 0.16) x 10(^-2), where the uncertainties are due to the measurement of the semileptonic B decay rate, the moments measurements, and theoretical uncertainties. Both CKM parameter extractions use Heavy Quark Eective Theory (HQET) predictions for inclusive semileptonic B decay. The measured moments are also used to test related predictions.

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