ATLAS NOTE

ATLAS-CONF-2010-098
November 16, 2010

Observation of the B meson in the decay B J/ (+ ) K in ATLAS

The ATLAS Collaboration

ATLAS-CONF-2010-098

16 November 2010

Abstract The production of B mesons is observed in ATLAS through their decay to J/ + K , using 3.4 pb1 of 7 TeV LHC collisions. A total of 283 22(stat.) signal decays are observed after subtracting the background, with a tted mass of 5283.2 2.5(stat.) MeV. Within the statistical uncertainty, the tted mass is consistent with the world average value.

1 Introduction
Charged B mesons arising from bb pairs produced in LHC collisions can be reconstructed exclusively (branching fraction 0.1% [1]) using the J/ decay to a di-muon nal state from their decay to J/K (branching fraction 6%). ATLAS can reconstruct B mesons decaying to the J/(+ )K nal state with high eciency, provided at least one muon passes the trigger requirements. The channel B J/(+ )K is a reference for a variety of high-precision B-physics measurements, such as the branching ratio of the rare B-decay B s + . It will be used as a calibration tool for avour tagging, needed for CP violation studies. The mass and lifetime measurements will test the performance of the inner detector (e.g. alignment, magnetic eld and material). In this note approximately 3.4 pb1 of ATLAS pp collision data with s = 7 TeV are used to reconstruct B mesons from the J/(+ )K nal state. The mass distributions of the signal and background are studied, the mean mass of the peak determined and the number of signal candidates is extracted.

2 Monte Carlo sample

A dedicated sample of 500k Monte Carlo (MC) B+ J/ + K + events is used to compare the mass position and resolution with the results obtained from the data. They are generated with P [2] using the ATLAS MC09 tuning [3]. The signal events are produced such that every generated event contains at least one instance of the signal process. Generated events are retained only if both muons from the J/ have transverse momenta pT > 2.5 GeV. The ATLAS detector is simulated with the Geant4 package [4] and the events are fully reconstructed with the same software that is used to process the data from the detector. Unless stated otherwise, the reconstructed MC events are analyzed in exactly the same way as the data.

3 Data sample and trigger selections

The ATLAS detector [5] covers nearly the entire solid angle around the collision point with layers of tracking detectors, calorimeters and muon chambers. The muon and tracking systems are of particular importance in the reconstruction of the B candidates. Only data where both were fully operational, and where the LHC beams were declared to be stable, are used here. The data were collected in a period of rising instantaneous luminosity at the LHC, and the trigger conditions varied considerably over this time. Consequently, the trigger selections dier depending on the period of data taking. For periods with no High-Level Trigger (HLT) active, the lowest pT single and di-muon triggers at level-1 are used (without a minimum pT threshold imposed). For data periods using HLT, events passing a variety of single and di-muon HLT triggers are accepted, with thresholds ranging from 4 to 10 GeV. For higher luminosity runs the single muon triggers with low thresholds were prescaled; events passing these triggers are accepted nevertheless. Applying these requirements of data quality and trigger to s = 7 TeV pp collision data taken between 24th June and 29th August 2010, provides a data sample of 3.4 pb1 . This luminosity estimate has an uncertainty of 11% [6].

4 Muon reconstruction
Muon identication and reconstruction in ATLAS extends over the pseudorapidity range || < 2.7, covering a pT range above 1 GeV. In the muon reconstruction algorithms three categories of muons are

reconstructed: Muons from standalone reconstruction: The standalone muon reconstruction is entirely based on the tracks reconstructed in the Muon Spectrometer (MS). The track parameters are obtained from the MS track and are extrapolated to the interaction point, taking into account multiple scattering and energy loss in the traversed material. The standalone reconstruction covers || < 2.7. Muons from combined reconstruction: The combined muon reconstruction relies on combining the tted tracks from the standalone MS and Inner Detector (ID) reconstruction, selecting the tracks to be paired on the basis of tight matching criteria to create a combined muon track. Due to ID coverage, the combined reconstruction covers || < 2.5. Muons from ID track tagging: A tagged muon track is formed by groups of hits in the muon detectors which are not associated with an MS track, but which are matched to ID tracks extrapolated to the MS. The reconstruction of tagged muons is of particular relevance for muons in the pT range 3 8 GeV, as is the case for muons from J/ decays. Because of their low pT , they are not always fully reconstructed in the MS as they will not reach all muon stations. Such a reconstructed muon adopts the measured parameters of the associated ID track. The muon tagging covers || < 2. In the current analysis, only combined and tagged muons are used; muon pairs should contain at least one combined muon.

B candidate selection

Events passing the data quality and trigger selections described in section 3 are required to pass the following additional criteria: Collision candidates: The event must contain at least one reconstructed primary vertex with at least 3 associated inner detector tracks in order to be considered as a collision candidate. Track selection: Tracks are required to have at least one hit in the pixel detector and at least six hits in the semiconductor tracker. Muon selection: The event must contain at least one pair of oppositely charged muon candidates as described above. The muons are not required to match the object(s) which red the trigger. In this analysis the muon parameters are taken from the ID measurement alone. Low pT muon measurements are dominated by the Inner Detector track reconstruction. Muon pairs are considered to form a J/ + candidate if: the pair of the muon candidate tracks ts successfully to a common vertex with 2 /d.o.f. < 10; the highest-pT muon has a pT of at least 4 GeV, and the other has a pT of at least 2.5 GeV; their invariant mass (calculated from the track parameters retted by the vertexing algorithm [7] and under a muon mass hypothesis) lies within a 3 window of 180 MeV of their tted mean, that is, in the mass range 2915 3275 MeV. This cut is illustrated on Figure 1. A maximum likelihood method is used to t the J/ mass. The signal is described using a Gaussian with per-candidate uncertainties and a linear background description: for details see [8].

Entries / (20 MeV)

10000 8000 6000 4000 2000

s = 7 TeV

L dt = 3.4 pb

-1

mJ/ = 3095.6 0.2(stat.) MeV

ATLAS Preliminary

0 2700 2800 2900 3000 3100 3200 3300 3400 3500 m+- (MeV)

Figure 1: J/ + candidates passing the cuts for the J/ selection. Those used in the the search for B candidates are subject to a tighter mass window, as shown by the dotted vertical lines. The points are data. The solid line is the result of an unbinned maximum likelihood t to all di-muon pairs in the mass window 2700 3500 MeV and the dashed line is the result for the background of the same t. The signal is described using a Gaussian with per candidate uncertainties and the background is modelled with a linear description: for details see [8]. The given error on the tted mass is statistical only.

A total of 75k J/ candidates fullling the above criteria are found in the preselected events. Di-muon track pairs passing the J/ candidate selection presented above are again tted to a common vertex with an additional third track having pT greater than 2.5 GeV. The 3-track vertex t is performed by constraining the muon tracks to the J/ world average mass and assigning a kaon mass hypothesis to the third track. Fitted triplets are considered to be loose B J/K decay candidates if: The 2 /d.o.f. of the three-track vertex t is less than 6; The overall pT of the three-track combination (calculated from the retted parameters) is greater than 10 GeV. A total of 13k candidates fullling the above criteria are found in a wide mass range 4000 7000 MeV. Figure 2 shows the invariant mass distribution of these loose J/K candidates, separated by charge.
Entries / (30 MeV) 220 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 4000 ATLAS Preliminary 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 No vertex displacement cut applied
J/ ( -)K J/ ( -)K
s = 7 TeV
+ + +

L dt = 3.4 pb

-1

mJ/K (MeV)

Figure 2: Invariant mass distributions of reconstructed J/K + (solid circles) and J/K candidates (triangles) in mass range 4000 7000 MeV passing the selection criteria described in Section 5.

6 Fit to invariant mass distribution

An unbinned maximum-likelihood t is used to extract the B mass and the number of B signal candidates from the data. The likelihood function is dened by:
N

L=
i=1

F signal (miJ/K ) + Fbkg (miJ/K )

(1)

where N is the total number of J/K candidates in the invariant mass range mmin < m J/K < mmax , with mmin = 5000 MeV and mmax = 5600 MeV. The F signal and Fbkg are probability density functions that model the B signal and background mass shapes in this range. For the signal, the mass is modelled

with a Gaussian distribution: F signal (m J/K ) f sig 1 2 S m J/K e

(m J/K m B )2 2(S m J/K )2

(2)

whose mean value mB is the hypothesised B mass, and its width is a product S m J/K . The mass error m J/K is calculated for each J/K candidate from the covariance matrix associated with the 3-track vertex t and f sig represents the signal fraction. The scale factor S accounts for dierences between the per-event errors on the candidate masses (calculated from tracking parameters) and the overall mass resolution. Ideally the value of this parameter is 1. For the background, the mass distribution is modelled with a linear function: Fbkg (m J/K ) 1 f sig 1 + b m J/K mC mmax mmin (3)

where b is the slope of the linear background and mC (mmax + mmin )/2. On account of partially reconstructed B mesons and kinematic reections, no attempt is made to model the background far from the B mass region. In the mass region 5000 5600 MeV a linear approximation of the background is adequate within available statistics. The t has four free parameters: f sig , mB , S and b. Their values and covariance matrix returned by the t are used to calculate the number of B signal decays N sig , the mass resolution m and the number of background events Nbkg in the mass interval mB 3m . The mass resolution m is dened as the half of width of the B mass distribution for which the integral of F signal retains 68.3% of N sig symmetrically around the tted mass mB . The uncertainty of m is calculated using the covariance matrix of the t. The number of background events Nbkg in the mass interval mB 3m and its error is calculated from f sig , b, N and the error matrix of the t. The same t procedure is applied to the MC events assuming Fbkg 0 in equation 1.

7 Results
Figure 3 shows the invariant mass distribution for the loose J/K candidates, in a restricted mass range from 5000 to 5600 MeV. The t is applied as described in the previous section. The B mass returned by the t is 5283.8 3.4 MeV, which is consistent with the world average of 5279.17 0.29 MeV [1]. The B signal extracted from the t is 325 36 and the background is 756 87. The signal mass resolution m is 36 4 MeV; the equivalent for Monte Carlo is 39.6 0.2 MeV. To improve the signal-to-background ratio, the displaced decay vertex of the B is exploited by cutting on the transverse decay length of the B , which is dened as the signed projection of the ight B distance L of the B on its transverse momentum direction pT : L xy L pTB /|pTB | where L is the vector from the primary vertex to the B decay vertex. Proton bunch crossings in the LHC may contain several reconstructed primary vertices corresponding to multiple pp collisions. If the event contains two or more such primary vertices, one must be picked for the L xy measurement: If both of the tracks from the J/ candidate decay were used (amongst others) to reconstruct the same primary vertex, then this primary vertex is used for the L xy measurement. If neither of the tracks participated in the reconstruction of a primary vertex, then the primary vertex whose constituent tracks have the highest p2 is chosen for L xy . T 5

Entries / (30 MeV)

250 ATLAS Preliminary 200 150 100 50 No vertex displacement cut applied 0 5000 5100 5200 5300 5400 5500 5600 mJ/K (MeV)
s = 7 TeV mB = 5283.8 3.4(stat.) MeV = 36 4(stat.) MeV NB = 325 36(stat.)
-1

L dt = 3.4 pb

Figure 3: J/K candidates in a narrow mass window (no distinction made between charges of the combinations). The solid line is the projection of the result of the unbinned maximum likelihood t to all J/K candidates in the mass range 5000 5600 MeV. The dashed line is the projection for the background component of the same t. If one track participated in the reconstruction of a primary vertex, and the other did not, that primary vertex is used for L xy . If the two tracks from the J/ candidate decay participated in the reconstruction of dierent primary vertices, the event is rejected, since studies have indicated that such candidates form only background and are unlikely to be true J/s. Fewer than 0.1% of the selected events have such an ambiguous J/ candidate. In all cases, the primary vertex is retted after removing the tracks of the J/K system and the retted vertex is used in the calculation of L xy . The condition L xy > 300 m is imposed on the data, reducing the background by a factor of 6. With this requirement, about 13% of the signal is lost, in fair agreement with MC expectations for signal events. In the wide mass range 4000 7000 MeV, 3.8k candidates survive this L xy cut. Figure 4 shows the invariant mass distribution for all such candidates, with those containing a negative third track (B candidates) plotted separately from the B+ candidates. Figure 5 shows the invariant mass distribution for B candidates passing all the above selections in the reduced mass range 50005600 MeV. The result of the unbinned maximum likelihood t is projected onto the distribution. The B mass returned by the t is 5283.2 2.5 MeV, which is consistent with the world average value of 5279.17 0.29 MeV [1]. The number of B signal decays is 283 22 and the mass resolution of the B signal is 39 3 MeV. The number of background candidates in the mass range mB 3m , is 131 13. All given errors are statistical. In Figure 6, the invariant mass distributions are shown for B+ and B candidates separately. B+ and candidates are tted as described above. The numbers of B+ and B signals and their reconstructed B masses are equal within the statistical precision of current data. The mass resolution is the same for B+ and B and agrees with the resolution expected from MC simulation. 6

Entries / (30 MeV)

100 ATLAS Preliminary 80 60 40 20 0 4000

J/ ( -)K J/ ( -)K
s = 7 TeV
+ + +

L dt = 3.4 pb
Lxy > 300 m

-1

4500

5000

5500

6000

6500

7000

mJ/K (MeV)

Figure 4: Invariant mass distributions of reconstructed J/K + (solid circles) and J/K candidates (triangles) in mass range 4000 7000 MeV passing the selection criteria described in Section 5 after requiring a displaced vertex with L xy > 300 m as described in Section 7.

Entries / (30 MeV)

120 ATLAS Preliminary 100 80 60 40 20 0 5000 5100 5200

s = 7 TeV

mB = 5283.2 2.5(stat.) MeV = 39 3(stat.) MeV NB = 283 22(stat.) Lxy > 300 m

L dt = 3.4 pb

-1

5300

5400

5500

5600

mJ/K (MeV)

Figure 5: Invariant mass distribution of reconstructed B J/ K candidates. The points with error bars are data. The solid line is the projection of the result of the unbinned maximum likelihood t to all J/K candidates in the mass range 5000 5600 MeV. The dashed line is the projection for the background component of the same t.

The scale factors S for both B+ and B signals are consistent with each other as well as with the value obtained from MC events. The results of the ts to data and MC simulation are summarized in Table 1.
Entries / (30 MeV) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 5000 5100 5200 5300 5400 5500 5600 ATLAS Preliminary
s = 7 TeV mB+ = 5282.6 3.6(stat.) MeV = 40 4(stat.) MeV NB+ = 138 15(stat.) Lxy > 300 m
-1

L dt = 3.4 pb

mJ/K+ (MeV) Entries / (30 MeV) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 5000 5100 5200 5300 5400 5500 5600 ATLAS Preliminary
s = 7 TeV mB- = 5283.7 3.3(stat.) MeV = 39 4(stat.) MeV NB- = 146 15(stat.) Lxy > 300 m
-1

L dt = 3.4 pb

mJ/K- (MeV)

Figure 6: Invariant mass distributions of reconstructed B+ J/ K + (top) and B J/ K candidates (bottom). The points with error bars are data. The solid line is the projection of the result of the unbinned maximum likelihood t to all J/K + and J/K candidates in the mass range 5000 5600 MeV. The dashed line is the projection for the background component of the same t.

Table 1: Summary of t results to mass distributions of B , B+ , B candidates. The number of background events
is given in the range mB 3m . The same t is applied to signal MC assuming Fbkg 0 in equation 1. Errors indicated are statistical only.

B B+ B MC

mB , MeV 5283.2 2.5 5282.6 3.6 5283.7 3.3 5281.8 0.2

m , MeV 39 3 40 4 39 4 39.8 0.2

N sig 283 22 138 15 146 15

Nbkg 131 13 70 11 61 8

S 1.09 0.07 1.12 0.11 1.06 0.10 1.100 0.003

8 Conclusion
The B meson is clearly observed by ATLAS in the decay B J/ + K . Using 3.4 pb1 of pp collision data at 7 TeV, the t to the peak yields a central value of 5283.2 2.5(stat.) MeV, which is compatible with the world average of 5279.17 0.29 MeV [1]. After all cuts, the total number of observed signal events is 283 22(stat.) over a background of 131 13(stat.) .

References
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