Modelling Bose-Einstein correlations at LEP 2

Abstract

We present new algorithms for simulating Bose-Einstein correlations among final-state bosons in an event generator. The algorithms are all based on introducing Bose-Einstein correlations as a shift of final-state momenta among identical bosons, and differ only in the way energy and momentum conservation is ensured. The benefits and shortcomings of this approach, that may be viewed as a local reweighting strategy, is compared to the ones of recently proposed algorithms involving global event reweighting. We use the new algorithms to improve on our previous study of the effects of Bose-Einstein correlations on the W mass measurement at LEP 2. The intrinsic uncertainty could be as high as 100 MeV but is probably reduced to the order of 30 MeV with realistic experimental reconstruction procedures.