K. Ackerstaff et al., TESTS OF THE STANDARD MODEL AND CONSTRAINTS ON NEW PHYSICS FROM MEASUREMENTS OF FERMION-PAIR PRODUCTION AT 130-172GEV AT LEP, EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C-PARTICLES AND FIELDS, 2(3), 1998, pp. 441-472
Production of events with hadronic and leptonic final states has been
measured in e(+)e(-) collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172
GeV, using the OPAL detector at LEP. Cross-sections and leptonic forwa
rd-backward asymmetries are presented, both including and excluding th
e dominant production of radiative Z gamma events, and compared to Sta
ndard Model expectations. The ratio R-b of the cross-section for <b(b)
over bar> production to the hadronic cross-section has been measured.
In a model-independent fit to the Z lineshape, the data have been used
to obtain an improved precision on the measurement of gamma-Z interfe
rence. The energy dependence of alpha(em) has been investigated. The m
easurements have also been used to obtain limits on extensions of the
Standard Model described by effective four-fermion contact interaction
s, to search for t-channel contributions from new massive particles an
d to place limits on gaugino pair production with subsequent decay of
the gaugino into a light gluino and a quark pair.