Measurement of b quark fragmentation fractions in the production of strange and light B mesons in pp̅ collisions at √s =1.8 TeV

Authors

F. Abe, National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
Kenneth A. Bloom, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Collider Detector at Fermilab Collaboration

Date of this Version

11-1-1999

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. D 60, 092005 (1999). http://prd.aps.org. Copyright © 1999 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

A new technique to measure the ratio of b quark fragmentation fractions in pp̅ collisions is described. Using a 70-pb^-1 sample of low-mass dimuon trigger data recorded with the Collider Detector at Fermilab, we identify B mesons by observing the double semileptonic decays b→cμX with c→sμ X. By counting the numbers of K*(892) ⁰, K*(892) ¹, and Φ (1020) mesons produced in association with these muon pairs, we measure the ratio of strange to nonstrange B meson production to be f_s /( f_u+ i>f_d)=[21.0±3.6(stat) _-3.0^+3.8 (syst)]%. This measurement is the most precise available from hadron collisions to date. Limits on the branching fractions of semileptonic charm meson decays with K₁ (1270), K₁^* (1410), and K₂^* (1430) mesons in the final state are also obtained.