Eur. Phys. J. C (1998) 5: 1-17
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529800894

Experimental physics

Determination of the production rate of D^*0 mesons and of the ratio V/(V+P) in decays

¹⁰ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK
⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica dell’ Università di Bologna and INFN, 1-40126, Bologna, Italy
¹⁵ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, D-53115, Bonn, Germany
²⁵ Department of Physics, University of California, 92521, Riverside, CA, USA
⁴ Cavendish Laboratory, CB3 OHE, Cambridge, UK
²³ Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Physics, Department of Physics, Carleton University, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
³⁰ Centre for Research in Particle Physics, Carleton University, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
¹ CERN, European Organisation for Particle Physics, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
⁵ Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA
²⁰ Fakultät für Physik, Albert Ludwigs Universität, D-79104, Freiburg, Germany
²¹ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
⁶ Department of Physics, Indiana University, Swain Hall West 117, 47405, Bloomington, IN, USA
²⁴ Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, El 4NS, London, UK
¹⁶ Technische Hochschule Aachen, III Physikalisches Institut, Sommerfeldstrasse 26-28, D-52056, Aachen, Germany
¹⁸ University College London, WC1E 6BT, London, UK
³ Department of Physics, Schuster Laboratory, The University, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
¹⁴ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, MD, USA
¹² Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire, Université de Montréal, H3C 3J7, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
³⁶ Department of Physics, University of Oregon, 97403, Eugene, OR, USA
¹⁷ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 0X11 0QX, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK
²⁶ Department of Physics, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 32000, Haifa, Israel
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel
⁸ International Centre for Elementary Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, 113, Tokyo, Japan
⁹ Kobe University, 657, Kobe, Japan
³³ Institute of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Brunel University, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK
³¹ Particle Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel
¹⁹ Universität Hamburg/DESY, II Institut für Experimental Physik, Notkestrasse 85, D-22607, Hamburg, Germany
³⁴ Department of Physics, University of Victoria, P O Box 3055, V8W 3P6, Victoria, BC, Canada
¹¹ Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Vancouver, BC, Canada
²⁷ Department of Physics, University of Alberta, T6G 2J1, Edmonton, AB, Canada
³⁷ Dept of Physics, Duke University, 27708-0305, Durham, NC, USA
³² Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, P O Box 49, H-1525, Budapest, Hungary
²⁸ Institute of Nuclear Research, P O Box 51, H-4001, Debrecen, Hungary
²² Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München. Sektion Physik, Am Coulombwall 1, D-85748, Garching, Germany
¹³ TRIUMF, V6T 2A3, Vancouver, Canada
³⁵ Institute of Nuclear Research, Debrecen, Hungary
²⁹ Department of Experimental Physics, Lajos Kossuth University, Debrecen, Hungary
³⁸ Department of Physics, New York University, 1003, NY, USA

Received: 12 January 1998
Published online: 16 September 2013

Abstract

In e⁺e²²¹² collisions at centre-of-mass energies around 91 GeV, D*⁰ mesons have been reconstructed using data collected with the OPAL detector at LEP. The hadronisation fraction has been measured to be f(c→D^*0)=0.218±0.054±0.045±0.007, where the errors correspond to the statistical and systematic errors specific to this analysis, and to systematic uncertainties from externally measured branching fractions, respectively. Together with previous OPAL measurements of the hadronisation fractions of other charmed mesons, this value is used to investigate the relative production of observed vector and pseudoscalar charmed mesons in decays. The production ratio is determined to be P _eff ^V = V/(V+P)=0.57±0.05. The relative primary production of vector and pseudoscalar mesons, P _v ^rim , is studied in the context of the production and decay of orbitally excited charmed resonances. The first measurement of the inclusive D_s*⁺ production rate in hadronic Z⁰ decays is presented.