B Decay Studies at SLD

Abstract

We present three preliminary results from SLD on B decays: an inclusive search for the process b-> s gluon, a measurement of the branching ratio for the process B -> D D-bar X, and measurements of the charged and neutral B lifetimes. All three measurements make use of the excellent vertexing efficiency and resolution of the CCD Vertex Detector and the first two make use of the excellent particle identification capability of the Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector. The b->sg analysis searches for an enhancement of high momentum charged kaons produced in B decays. Within the context of a simple, Jetset-inspired model of b->sg, a limit of BR(b->sg) < 7.6% is obtained. The B -> D D-bar X analysis reconstructs two secondary vertices and uses identified charged kaons to determine which of these came from charm decays. The result of the analysis is BR(B -> D D-bar X) = (16.2 +/- 1.9 +/- 4.2)%. The results of lifetime analysis are: \tau_{B^+} = 1.686 +/-0.025 +/- 0.042 ps, \tau_{B^0} = 1.589 +/- 0.026 +/- 0.055 ps and $\tau_{B^+}/\tau_{B^0} = 1.061 +/- ^{0.031}_{0.029} +/- 0.027.