Measurement of the average lifetime of<i>B</i>hadrons produced in<i>pp¯</i>collisions at √<i>s</i>=1.8 TeV

Abstract

The average b-hadron lifetime has been measured using a high statistics sample of B\ensuremath{\rightarrow}J/\ensuremath{\psi} X decays recorded with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The decay vertices of 5344 inclusive J/\ensuremath{\psi}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}}^{+}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\mu}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ candidates have been reconstructed using information from a silicon vertex detector. The measured B lifetime, which is the average over all b hadrons produced in pp\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{} collisions at \ensuremath{\surd}s =1.8 TeV weighted by their branching ratios into J/\ensuremath{\psi}, is 1.46\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.06(stat)\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.06(syst) ps.