First measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry in Z boson production by e+e- collisions.

Abstract

We present the first measurement of the left-right cross section asymmetry (${\mathit{A}}_{\mathit{L}\mathit{R}}$) for Z boson production by ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ collisions. The measurement was performed at a center-of-mass energy of 91.55 GeV with the SLD detector at the SLAC Linear Collider which utilized a longitudinally polarized electron beam. The average beam polarization was (22.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.6)%. Using a sample of 10 224 Z decays, we measure ${\mathit{A}}_{\mathit{L}\mathit{R}}$ to be 0.100\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.044(stat)\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.004(syst), which determines the effective weak mixing angle to be ${\mathrm{sin}}^{2}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\theta}}}_{\mathit{W}}^{\mathit{e}\mathit{f}\mathit{f}}$=0.2378 \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.0056(stat)\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.0005(syst).