Getting to Higgs

Graphing B Lifetime
To find the lifetime from the exponential decay you will need to do these steps:

  1. Sort the data by descending lifetimes (rest frame).

  2. Make a histograph of lifetimes.

    Data analysis help - Making a histogram

  3. Plot frequency vs. binned lifetimes.

    How does your histogram look? Do you need to try a different size bin?

  4. Find the amount of time for the number in the bin to be about e-1 (or 37%) of the original. That is the rest lifetime!
What does the data tell us?
  1. What is the B lifetime based on this data?

  2. How does that compare to the accepted value of 1.54 x 10-12 sec?

  3. Why might yours be different?

  4. If the B is traveling at nearly the speed of light, c, how far could it travel on the average? Is that more or less than the radius of the beam pipe (2.5 cm)?

References

Assignments: Identifying B