Upper limit on the lifetime difference of short - and long - lived B⁰_s mesons

Abstract

An upper limit on the lifetime difference of short- and long-lived B⁰_s mesons has been obtained using an inclusive bottom hadron sample from 2 million hadronic Z decays collected by the L3 experiment at LEP. A lifetime fit has been performed on data samples separately enriched in neutral and charged b hadrons. An experimental upper limit on the decay rate difference of short- and long-lived B⁰_s mesons of (|ΔΓ|/Γ)_B⁰s<0.67 (95% C.L.) has been determined. In addition, the lifetimes of B⁺ and B⁰_d mesons have been measured to be Τ(B⁺) = 1.66±0.06 ±0.03 ps andΤ(B⁰_d) = 1.52±0.06 ±0.04 ps, where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic.