Measurement of the First Hadronic Spectral Moment from Semileptonic B Decays

A preliminary determination of the first moment of the hadronic mass distribution 〈M2 X −m 2 D〉 in semileptonic B decays has been obtained as a function of the minimum lepton momentum, ranging from 0.9 to 1.6 GeV/c. The measurement is based on a new technique involving BB events in which one fully reconstructed B meson decays hadronically and the recoiling B decays semileptonically. The mass of the hadrons in the semileptonic decay is determined from a kinematic fit to the whole event. For different minimum lepton momenta, the mass distribution is decomposed into contributions from various charm resonant states and a non-resonant contribution, allowing for the determination of the first moment. From these moments the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) parameters λ1 and Λ̄ can be derived. For lepton momenta in the B rest frame above 1.5GeV/c, we find a first moment that is compatible with existing measurements. However, if we extend the measurement to lower values of lepton momenta, the data can only be described by Operator Product Expansion calculations if we use significantly different values for Λ̄ and λ1 than obtained from earlier measurements based on lepton momentum spectra and the photon spectrum in b → sγ transitions. Contributed to the 31 International Conference on High Energy Physics, 7/24—7/31/2002, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94309 Work supported in part by Department of Energy contract DE-AC03-76SF00515. The BABAR Collaboration, B. Aubert, D. Boutigny, J.-M. Gaillard, A. Hicheur, Y. Karyotakis, J. P. Lees, P. Robbe, V. Tisserand, A. Zghiche Laboratoire de Physique des Particules, F-74941 Annecy-le-Vieux, France A. Palano, A. Pompili Università di Bari, Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, I-70126 Bari, Italy J. C. Chen, N. D. Qi, G. Rong, P. Wang, Y. S. Zhu Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing 100039, China G. Eigen, I. Ofte, B. Stugu University of Bergen, Inst. of Physics, N-5007 Bergen, Norway G. S. Abrams, A. W. Borgland, A. B. Breon, D. N. Brown, J. Button-Shafer, R. N. Cahn, E. Charles, M. S. Gill, A. V. Gritsan, Y. Groysman, R. G. Jacobsen, R. W. Kadel, J. Kadyk, L. T. Kerth, Yu. G. Kolomensky, J. F. Kral, C. LeClerc, M. E. Levi, G. Lynch, L. M. Mir, P. J. Oddone, T. J. Orimoto, M. Pripstein, N. A. Roe, A. Romosan, M. T. Ronan, V. G. Shelkov, A. V. Telnov, W. A. Wenzel Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA T. J. Harrison, C. M. Hawkes, D. J. Knowles, S. W. O’Neale, R. C. Penny, A. T. Watson, N. K. Watson University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom T. Deppermann, K. Goetzen, H. Koch, B. Lewandowski, K. Peters, H. Schmuecker, M. Steinke Ruhr Universität Bochum, Institut für Experimentalphysik 1, D-44780 Bochum, Germany N. R. Barlow, W. Bhimji, J. T. Boyd, N. Chevalier, P. J. Clark, W. N. Cottingham, C. Mackay, F. F. Wilson University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom K. Abe, C. Hearty, T. S. Mattison, J. A. McKenna, D. Thiessen University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1 S. Jolly, A. K. McKemey Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom V. E. Blinov, A. D. Bukin, A. R. Buzykaev, V. B. Golubev, V. N. Ivanchenko, A. A. Korol, E. A. Kravchenko, A. P. Onuchin, S. I. Serednyakov, Yu. I. Skovpen, A. N. Yushkov Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia D. Best, M. Chao, D. Kirkby, A. J. Lankford, M. Mandelkern, S. McMahon, D. P. Stoker University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA C. Buchanan, S. Chun University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA H. K. Hadavand, E. J. Hill, D. B. MacFarlane, H. Paar, S. Prell, Sh. Rahatlou, G. Raven, U. Schwanke, V. Sharma University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA