Production of excited beauty states in Z decays

A data sample of about 3.0 million hadronicZ decays collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP in the years 1991 through 1994 is used to make an inclusive selection of B hadron events. In this event sample 4227±140±252B* mesons in the decayB*→Bγ and 1944±108±161B** u,d mesons decaying into a B meson and a charged pion are reconstructed. Here and in the followingB** u,d denotes the eightL=1(bū) and (bd) states and their charge conjugate. For the well establishedB* meson the following quantities are obtained:ΔM=M B*−MB=(45.30±0.35±0.87) MeV/c2 andN B*/(N B+N B*)=(77.1±2.6±7.0)%. The angular distribution of the photons in theB* rest frame is used to measure the relative contribution of longitudinalB* polarization states to beσ L/(σ L+σ T)=(33±6±5)%. In theM(Bπ)−M(B) mass difference resonance structure is observed at (424±4±10) MeV/c2, for which the shape and position is consistent with the expectation forB** u,d states decaying intoB(*)π ±. The relative production rate is determined to be $$\begin{gathered} \frac{{BR(Z \to b \to B_{u,d}^{ * * } )}}{{BR(Z \to b \to B_{u,d} )}} \hfill \\ = [27.9 \pm 1.6(stat) \pm 5.9(syst) {}_{ - 5.6}^{ + 3.9} (model)]\% \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$ where the third error reflects the uncertainty due to different production and decay models for the broadB** u,d states.