Analysis of Bs flavor oscillations at CDF
Citations Over Time
Abstract
The search for and study of flavor oscillations in the neutral BsBs meson system is an experimentally challenging task. It constitutes a flagship analysis of the Tevatron physics program. In this dissertation, they develop an analysis of the time-dependent Bs flavor oscillations using data collected with the CDF detector. The data samples are formed of both fully and partially reconstructed B meson decays: Bs → Dsπ(ππ) and Bs → Dslv. A likelihood fitting framework is implemented and appropriate models and techniques developed for describing the mass, proper decay time, and flavor tagging characteristics of the data samples. The analysis is extended to samples of B+ and B0 mesons, which are further used for algorithm calibration and method validation. The B mesons lifetimes are extracted. The measurement of the B0 oscillation frequency yields Δmd = 0.522 ± 0.017 ps-1. The search for Bs oscillations is performed using an amplitude method based on a frequency scanning procedure. Applying a combination of lepton and jet charge flavor tagging algorithms, with a total tagging power ϵ'D2 of 1.6%, to a data sample of 355 pb-1, a sensitivity of 13.0 ps-1 is achieved. They develop a preliminary same side kaon tagging algorithm, which is found to provide a superior tagging power of about 4.0% for the Bs meson species. A study of the dilution systematic uncertainties is not reported. From its application as is to the Bs samples the sensitivity is significantly increased to about 18 ps-1 and a hint of a signal is seen at about 175. ps-1. They demonstrate that the extension of the analysis to the increasing data samples with the inclusion of the same side tagging algorithm is capable of providing an observation of Bs mixing beyond the standard model expectation. They show also that the improved knowledge of Δms has a considerable impact on constraining the CKM matrix elements.