Precise measurement of the b-quark fragmentation function in Z0 boson decays

TL;DR

A new technique for inclusive reconstruction of the energy of B hadrons, using e(+)e(-)-->Z0 decays recorded in the SLAC Large Detector experiment, which makes the most precise determination of the b-quark fragmentation function.

Abstract

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+e- -> Z0 decays recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC. 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_B>=0.714+-0.005(stat)+-0.007(syst) +-0.002(model dependence).

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Distribution of the reconstructed scaled energy of weakly decaying $B$-hadrons (points); the errors are statistical. The predictions of eight models are shown as histograms.
• Figure 2: Unfolded distribution of weakly-decaying scaled $B$-hadron energy (points). The errors are statistical only and do not include point-to-point correlations. The band represents the envelope of acceptable functions (see text). Also shown (circles) is the best previous measurement [15].