Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2000

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Physics

Major Professor

William Bugg

Committee Members

Edward L. Hart

Abstract

This thesis presents a precise measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry (ALR) of the Z0 boson production by e+e- collision. The measurement is based on the complete data set of 537k Z0 events collected by the SLD detector at the SLAC Linear Collider. The pole value of the asymmetry, A0LR was found to be 0.15138 ± 0.00216, which is equivalent to the effective weak mixing angle of sine ƒ ƒW = 0.23097 ± 0.00027. A technique for a high energy electron beam polarization measurement, based on scattering the beam off a circularly polarized laser light and using a total absorption calorimeter to detect Compton photons, is also presented. The QFC polarimeter based on this technique has been built and successfully operated at the SLAC Linear Collider, resulting in an improvement of the electron beam polarization measurement accuracy, which is critical for a precise A0LR measurement. Applicability of this technique for use in future e+e- collider experiments is discussed.

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