Publication
Title
Precision electroweak measurements on the Z resonance
Author
Abstract
We report on the final electroweak measurements performed with data taken at the Z resonance by the experiments operating at the electronpositron colliders SLC and LEP. The data consist of 17 million Z decays accumulated by the ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP, and 600 thousand Z decays by the SLD experiment using a polarised beam at SLC. The measurements include cross-sections, forwardbackward asymmetries and polarised asymmetries. The mass and width of the Z boson, mZ and ΓZ, and its couplings to fermions, for example the ρ parameter and the effective electroweak mixing angle for leptons, are precisely measured: View the MathML source The number of light neutrino species is determined to be 2.9840±0.0082, in agreement with the three observed generations of fundamental fermions. The results are compared to the predictions of the Standard Model (SM). At the Z-pole, electroweak radiative corrections beyond the running of the QED and QCD coupling constants are observed with a significance of five standard deviations, and in agreement with the Standard Model. Of the many Z-pole measurements, the forwardbackward asymmetry in b-quark production shows the largest difference with respect to its SM expectation, at the level of 2.8 standard deviations. Through radiative corrections evaluated in the framework of the Standard Model, the Z-pole data are also used to predict the mass of the top quark, View the MathML source, and the mass of the W boson, View the MathML source. These indirect constraints are compared to the direct measurements, providing a stringent test of the SM. Using in addition the direct measurements of mt and mW, the mass of the as yet unobserved SM Higgs boson is predicted with a relative uncertainty of about 50% and found to be less than View the MathML source at 95% confidence level.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Physics reports. - Amsterdam, 1971, currens
Publication
Amsterdam : North-Holland , 2006
ISSN
0370-1573
DOI
10.1016/J.PHYSREP.2005.12.006
Volume/pages
427 :5/6 (2006) , p. 257-454
ISI
000236815000001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 02.03.2010
Last edited 23.08.2022
To cite this reference