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Abstract
Bound states of heavy quarks can serve as a laboratory for inquiry into the behaviour of the fundamental strong and electroweak interactions. This thesis examines observations of [special characters omitted] and B± mesons produced in proton-antiproton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of [special characters omitted] = 1.8 TeV. The B-meson decay products are recorded using the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) located on the Tevatron collider at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, USA.
Four B-meson decays and their charge conjugates are studied: [special characters omitted] and [special characters omitted] Using a data sample corresponding to ∫ [special characters omitted], statistically significant signals are observed in all the channels. Topological similarities between the B decays are exploited to measure the six relative branching fractions ([special characters omitted]) of each channel with respect to the other channels. The ratios involving the [special characters omitted] mode are [special characters omitted] The indicated uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. In ratios involving unlike B-meson species, equal production rates for B+ and B0 mesons have been assumed.
Absolute branching fractions are extracted by normalizing the above ratio measurements to the world-average value, [special characters omitted][special characters omitted]
The [special characters omitted] reconstructions are the first observations of these processes at a hadron collider. The branching-fraction ratio measurements are consistent with phenomenological predictions that employ the factorization Ansatz, and the absolute branching-fraction measurements are consistent with previous world-average limits and values from [special characters omitted] colliders. The measured branching fractions that involve [special characters omitted] final states constitute the world's most precise measurements of these quantities.
