A precise measurement of the Z resonance parameters through its hadronic decays

Abstract A measurement of the cross section for e + e - → hadrons using 11 000 hadronic decays of the Z boson at ten different center-of-mass energies is presented. A three-parameter fit gives the following values for the Z mass M z , the total width Γ z , the product of the electronic and hadronic partial widths Γ e Γ h , and the unfolded pole cross section σ 0 : M Z =91.171±0.030(stat)±0.030 (beam) GeV, Γ Z =2.511±0.065 GeV, Γ e Γ h =0.148±0.006 (stat.)±0.004 (syst.) GeV 2 , σ 0 =41.6±0.7(stat.)±1.1 (syst.) nb, Good agreement with the predictions of the standard model is observed. From a two-parameter fit the number of massless neutrino generations is found to be N ν = 2.97±0.26. Thus the hypothesis of a fourth neutrino with mass less than 40 GeV is excluded with 95% confidence level. Combining the cross section measurements with the ratio Γ l Γ h reported in another DELPHI paper [Phys. Lett. B 241 (1990) 425], the hadronic, leptonic and invisible widths are found to be Γ h =1741±61 MeV, Γ l =85.1±2.9 MeV, Γ h Γ l =20.45±0.98 , Γ inv =515±54 MeV, in good agreement with the standard model.