Author/Authors :
OPAL Collaboration، نويسنده , , G. Abbiendi، نويسنده , , K. Ackerstaff، نويسنده , , G. Alexander، نويسنده , , J. Allison، نويسنده , , N. Altekamp، نويسنده , , K.J. Anderson، نويسنده , , S. Anderson، نويسنده , , S. Arcelli، نويسنده , , S. Asai، نويسنده , , S.F Ashby، نويسنده , , D. Axen، نويسنده , , G. Azuelos، نويسنده , , A.H. Ball، نويسنده , , E. Barberio، نويسنده , , R.J. Barlow، نويسنده , , R. Bartoldus، نويسنده , , J.R. Batley، نويسنده , , Leslie S. Baumann، نويسنده , , J. Bechtluft، نويسنده , , et al.، نويسنده ,
Abstract :
In the Standard Model, b quarks produced in e+e− annihilation at the Z0 peak have a large average longitudinal polarization of −0.94. Some fraction of this polarization is expected to be transferred to b-flavored baryons during hadronization. The average longitudinal polarization of weakly decaying b baryons, 〈PLΛb〉, is measured in approximately 4.3 million hadronic Z0 decays collected with the OPAL detector between 1990 and 1995 at LEP. Those b baryons that decay semileptonically and produce a Λ baryon are identified through the correlation of the baryon number of the Λ and the electric charge of the lepton. In this semileptonic decay, the ratio of the neutrino energy to the lepton energy is a sensitive polarization observable. The neutrino energy is estimated using missing energy measurements. From a fit to the distribution of this ratio, the value 〈PLΛb〉=−0.56+0.20−0.13±0.09 is obtained, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic.
