Direct Limits on the B_s⁰ Oscillation Frequency

Authors

• V. M. Abazov, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia
• Kenneth A. Bloom, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Gregory R. Snow, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• D0 Collaboration

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

7-14-2006

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 021802 (2006). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 2006 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

We report results of a study of the B_s⁰ oscillation frequency using a large sample of B_s⁰ semileptonic decays corresponding to approximately 1 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in 2002–2006. The amplitude method gives a lower limit on the B_s⁰ oscillation frequency at 14.8 ps^-1 at the 95% C.L. At Δm_s = 19 ps^-1, the amplitude deviates from the hypothesis A= 0 (1) by 2.5 (1.6) standard deviations, corresponding to a two-sided C.L. of 1% (10%). A likelihood scan over the oscillation frequency, Δm_s, gives a most probable value of 19 ps^-1 and a range of 17 < Δm_s < 21 ps^-1 at the 90% C.L., assuming Gaussian uncertainties. This is the first direct two-sided bound measured by a single experiment. If Δm_s lies above 22 ps^-1, then the probability that it would produce a likelihood minimum similar to the one observed in the interval 16–22 ps^-1 is (5.0 ± 0.3)%.