Measurement of the B0 meson lifetime with partial reconstruction of B0→D*-π+ and B0→D*p+ decays

Abstract

The neutral B meson lifetime is measured with the data collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage ring during the years 1999 and 2000, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.7 fb-1. The decays B0 →D*-π+ and B0→D*-p+ are selected with a partial-reconstruction technique, yielding samples of 6970 ±240 and 5520±250 signal events, respectively. With these events, the B0 lifetime is measured to be 1.533 ±0.034 (stat)±0.038 (syst) ps. This measurement serves as a test and validation of procedures required to measure the CP violation parameter sin(2β+γ) with partial reconstruction of these modes.