Determination of the D mesons lifetimes

The results from the experiment NA27, performed in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN are presented. The experimental set up was the small, high resolution, rapid cyling bubble chamber LEBC coupled with the European Hybrid Spectrometer (EHS). More than 2 millions pictures were taken, with 1015000 in teractions in hydrogen. The stastistical sensitivity of the experiment was 38.5 events/μb. A clean sample of 700 charm particle decays was obtained. Estimators with minimal systematic and statistical errors are developed for the determination of the lifetimes of short-lived particles whose individual momenta are unknown. These estimators make use of the measured decay lengths and the a priori known production characteristics. In this way, it is possible to include identified but not fully reconstructed charm decays in the sample to determine their lifetime. The properties of these estimators were extensively studied by means of Montecarlo simulation. The detection of the short-lived particles through the impact parameter of their charged decay products leads to additional complications which are taken into account. The biases and statistical errors inherent in using simpler approximate lifetime estimators are also discussed. These estimators are applied to determine the lifetime of the Do and D+- mesons using the charm data sample from NA27. (Author)