No description available.

Using data recorded by the CLEO II detector operating at the Upsilon(4S) resonance at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, several properties of B mesons are measured using a partially reconstructed tag of the decay mode bar{B0} -> D*+ l- bar{nu}. Using 2.38 fb**{-1} of on-resonance data and the averaged B meson semileptonic branching fraction through inclusive lepton momentum spectrum obtained by previous CLEO analysis, we measure the B0 and B- semileptonic branching fraction to be (10.78 +/- 0.60 +/- 0.69)% and (10.25 +/- 0.57 +/- 0.65)% respectively, which yields the lifetime ratio tau_+/tau_0 = 0.950 +0.117-0.080 +0.091-0.068, assuming the equality of semileptonic partial branching width for bar{B0} and B-. With a larger dataset of 3.1 fb**{-1}, we measured the B0-bar{B0} mixing parameter chi_d to be 0.189 +/- 0.019 +/- 0.006. / Ph. D.

The LHCb experiment, based at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is primarily designed to make precision measurements of the decays of heavy flavour hadrons, such as B and D mesons. This thesis is composed of two parts: the first consists of two studies of LHCb's vertex locator (VELO) and the second describes the development of methods for recording the decay D0->K-mu+nu_mu. The first VELO study involves calibration and monitoring of the gain (i.e. the detector response to input charge from particles). We propose a robust method to measure the gain response of each silicon sensor using calibration bits output by the sensors, and a method to recalibrate the gain simple enough to be followed by non-expert VELO users. This is followed by an investigation into into the prospects of using the VELO to perform particle identification using the characteristic energy deposition of each particle species (dE/dx). Finally, studies into the development of a trigger and a so-called 'stripping line' for recording D0->K-mu+nu_mu decays is presented. The relatively high cross-section for charm decays in LHCb mean this decay (with a branching fraction of 3%) occurs frequently, and the challenge of a trigger is to reduce this to a rate acceptable to write to disk. Finally, based on a sample of data from July and August 2011, the measured q 2 distribution for this decay is compared to the simple single-pole theoretical model, and the pole mass is measured to bem_pole=2.35 + 0.81 - 0.35 GeV/c 2.

The decays, <img width=119 height=32 align=center src=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/28846/image006.gif> and <img width=119 height=29 align=center src=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/28846/image008.gif> are studied using data collected at the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. Both decays are identified using a partial reconstruction method where the <I>D<SUP>*</SUP></I> is detected only through a pion daughter from the decay <img width=64 height=25 align=center src=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/28846/image010.gif>. Because of the similarities in the analyses of the two modes, the ratio of the rates is measured in a way that is independent of the decay model, limited mainly by the uncertainty in the relative efficiency for detecting neutral and charged pions. This ratio is equivalent to the ratio of the product of production fraction and lifetime for charged and neutral B mesons, <img width=31 height=29 align=center src=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/28846/image012.gif>. It is combined with measurements of the lifetime ratio to obtain the ratio of charged and neutral B meson production at the Y(4S) resonance, <img width=175 height=29 align=center src=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/28846/image014.gif>. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Recent results at the LHCb and B-factory experiments have suggested that rare processes in B →Vγ and B → V ℓ¯ℓ decays, where V is a vector meson, show some deviation from Standard Model predictions. Although these anomalies are not yet at the level to constitute a formal discovery, they are certainly suggestive of potential New Physics effects in flavour-changing neutral currents. However, explanations within the Standard Model cannot yet be ruled out. This thesis contributes to the understanding of such anomalies in two ways. Firstly, the angular distribution of the B → KJ (→ Kπ)ℓ1¯ℓ2 decay is derived, for the full dimension-six effective weak Hamiltonian, using a generalisation of the helicity formalism to effective theories mediating b → sℓ1¯ℓ2 transitions. This approach sheds light on the origin of the underlying structure, and in the process extends the general angular distribution to decays in which the two leptons in the final state, ℓ1¯ℓ2, are not necessarily identical. An additional benefit of the derivation of the angular distribution presented in this manner is that it lends itself to a moments analysis of the decay. It is shown how the angular distribution changes in the presence of new operators, predicted to be vanishingly small in the Standard Model. Such operators could be sizeable in the presence of New Physics, but using a moments analysis enables the contribution of such operators to be assessed. Secondly, an analysis is presented of the three-particle vector and axial meson distribution amplitudes. It is shown that the distribution amplitudes of both particles are, up to QCD corrections, nearly identical. These results are applied to a new calculation of the long-distance charm loop contribution to radiative B → Vγ decays, and it is shown that the approximate symmetry can be exploited to provide an improved theoretical control in the search for New Physics contributions to right-handed currents in radiative decays.

No description available.

This thesis presents an analysis of inclusive semileptonic $B \to X_u e \nu$ decays using approximately 454 million $\Upsilon(4S) \to B \bar{B}$ decays collected during the years 1999 to 2008 with the BABAR detector. The electron energy, $E_e$, and the invariant mass squared of the electron-neutrino pair,$ q^2$, are reconstructed, where the neutrino kinematics is deduced from the decay products of both B mesons. The final hadronic state,$ X_u$, consists of a sum of many hadronic channels, each of which contains at least one $u$ quark. The variables $q^2$ and $E_e$ are then combined to compute the maximum kinematically allowed invariant mass squared of the hadronic system, $s_h^{max}$. Using these kinematic quantities, the partial branching fraction, $\Delta BR(B \to X_u e \nu)$, unfolded for detector effects, is measured to be $\Delta BR(E_e&amp;gt;2.0 GeV, s_h^{max}&amp;lt;3.52 GeV^2) = (3.33 \pm 0.18 \pm 0.21) \times 10^{-4} in the $\Upsilon(4S)$ and \Delta \tilde{\BR}(\tilde E_e&amp;gt;1.9 GeV, \tilde {s}^{max}_{h} &amp;lt; 3.5 GeV^2) = (4.57 \pm 0.24 \pm 0.32) \times 10^{-4} in the $B$ meson rest frames. The quoted errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The CKM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ is determined from the measured $\Delta \tilde{\BR}$ using theoretical calculation based on Heavy Quark Expansion. The result is $|V_{ub}| = (4.19 \pm 0.18{}^{+0.26}_{-0.20} {}^{+0.26}_{-0.25}) \times 10^{-3}, where the errors represent experimental uncertainties, uncertainties from HQE parameters and theoretical uncertainties, respectively.

Master of Science / An analysis of B to pi0 l nu and B to eta l nu decays using the neutrino reconstruction technique is presented. The dataset consists of 535 million BB pairs in 492 fb^−1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric e+e− collider. The measured B to pi0 l nu and B to eta l nu branching fractions are B(B to pi0 l nu) = (0.68 ± 0.09 ± 0.11 ± 0.04)×10^−4 and B(B to eta l nu) = (0.42 ± 0.13)×10^−4. The errors on the pi0 measurement are statistical, experimental systematic, and due to b to u l nu modelling, respectively; that on the eta is statistical only. The B to pi0 l nu branching fraction is measured in three q^2 bins: q^2 < 8 GeV^2, 8 GeV^2 ≤ q^2 < 16 GeV^2, and 16 GeV^2 ≤ q^2. The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing matrix element |Vub| is extracted from the B to pi0 l nu branching fraction using a Light-Cone Sum Rules form factor extrapolated to the full q^2 range, and is found to be |Vub| = (3.29 ± 0.23 ± 0.27 ± 0.05)×10^−3, where the errors are statistical, experimental systematic, and theoretical, respectively.

Master of Science / An analysis of B to pi0 l nu and B to eta l nu decays using the neutrino reconstruction technique is presented. The dataset consists of 535 million BB pairs in 492 fb^−1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric e+e− collider. The measured B to pi0 l nu and B to eta l nu branching fractions are B(B to pi0 l nu) = (0.68 ± 0.09 ± 0.11 ± 0.04)×10^−4 and B(B to eta l nu) = (0.42 ± 0.13)×10^−4. The errors on the pi0 measurement are statistical, experimental systematic, and due to b to u l nu modelling, respectively; that on the eta is statistical only. The B to pi0 l nu branching fraction is measured in three q^2 bins: q^2 < 8 GeV^2, 8 GeV^2 ≤ q^2 < 16 GeV^2, and 16 GeV^2 ≤ q^2. The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing matrix element |Vub| is extracted from the B to pi0 l nu branching fraction using a Light-Cone Sum Rules form factor extrapolated to the full q^2 range, and is found to be |Vub| = (3.29 ± 0.23 ± 0.27 ± 0.05)×10^−3, where the errors are statistical, experimental systematic, and theoretical, respectively.