Measurement of the W-pair production cross section and W-decay branching fractions in e +e − interactions at [formula omitted] GeV

• Published in: Physics letters. B 2000-12, Vol.496 (1), p.19-33
• Main Authors: Alemanni, G., Anderhub, H., Bagnaia, P., Behner, F., Blyth, S.C., Bobbink, G.J., Boldizsar, L., Bourilkov, D., Bourquin, M., Branson, J.G., Burger, J.D., Cai, X.D., Cara Romeo, G., Carlino, G., Castellini, G., Cecchi, C., Cerrada, M., Chaturvedi, U.K., Chemarin, M., Chen, A., Chen, G.M., Chen, H.F., Civinini, C., Clare, I., Costantini, S., de la Cruz, B., Degré, A., DeNotaristefani, F., Doria, A., Dova, M.T., Engler, A., Forconi, G., Furetta, C., Gheordanescu, N., Grenier, G., Gruenewald, M.W., Guida, M., Gupta, V.K., Hebbeker, T., Hou, S.R., Kim, D., Kiss, D., Kittel, W., Kräber, M., Kunin, A., Ladron de Guevara, P., Le Coultre, P., Leiste, R., Linde, F.L., Lista, L., Lu, Y.S., Luckey, D., Luminari, L., Malgeri, L., Mangeol, D., Marian, G., Martin, J.P., Marzano, F., McNeil, R.R., Mele, S., Mirabelli, G., Muijs, A.J.M., Park, H.K., Paus, C., Pedace, M., Perret-Gallix, D., Piccolo, D., Pieri, M., Piroué, P.A., Plyaskin, V., Pohl, M., Quartieri, J., Rahaman, M.A., Rancoita, P.G., Ranieri, R., Raspereza, A., Raven, G., Ren, D., Rescigno, M., Riles, K., Romero, L., Ruggiero, G., Sarakinos, M.E., Schmitz, D., Schotanus, D.J., Seganti, A., Shivarov, N., Son, D., Szillasi, Z., Sztaricskai, T., Tang, X.W., Ulbricht, J., Violini, P., Vivargent, M., Vorobyov, A.A., Yang, B.Z., Ye, J.B., Zalite, An, Zimmermann, B., Zöller, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/S0370-2693(00)01273-9

The data collected by the L3 experiment at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV are used to measure the W-pair production cross section and the W-boson decay branching fractions. These data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 176.8 pb −1. The total cross section for W-pair production, combining all final states, is measured to be σ WW=16.24±0.37 (stat.)±0.22 (syst.) pb. Including our data collected at lower centre-of-mass energies, the hadronic branching fraction of the W-boson is determined to be B(W→qq)=[68.20±0.68 (stat.)±0.33 (syst.)]%. The results agree with the Standard Model predictions.