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# Brown Dwarfs as Ejected Stellar Embryos: Observational Perspectives

## 1. Introduction

Our understanding of the formation of brown dwarfs has long been shrouded in controversy. Two aspects of their formation appear problematical from a theoretical point of view. The first is that brown dwarf masses are at least 10 times smaller than the typical Jeans mass in star forming molecular clouds. Thus any successful theory needs to produce regions of exceedingly high gas density ($`10^7`$ cm-3 for isothermal gas at $`10`$K). Secondly, once such proto-brown dwarfs have formed, it is necessary that they avoid substantial further accretion of gas from their environment, in order that they remain as low mass entities.

A variety of scenarios have been proposed that address the density issue. Many of these involve the formation of brown dwarfs within disks. For example, Lin et al. (1998) suggested that the requisite high densities would be produced during the encounter between two massive disks, when a long tidal filament could be flung out, leading to the subsequent formation of a brown dwarf. In loose T associations such encounters are likely to be extremely rare, which is in contrast to the increasing number of brown dwarfs found also in such environments. In the simulations of Bate (2002), however, where stars form in compact groups, such interactions are common and the majority of brown dwarfs form in massive disks that are highly disturbed by dynamical encounters. Li (2002), on the other hand, has shown that brown dwarfs may also form in isolated disks if these are supported by magnetic pressure. By contrast, Padoan & Nordlund (2002) have argued that brown dwarfs need not form in disks, but that sufficiently high densities may be produced in the shock compressed regions of turbulent flows; this process they term ‘turbulent fragmentation’ to distinguish it from the above scenarios in which the high densities required to form brown dwarfs are the result of self-gravity.

Once brown dwarfs have been produced by any of the above mechanisms, the remaining problem is to prevent their exceeding the hydrogen burning mass limit due to continued accretion. Recently, Whitworth & Zinnecker (2002) have suggested that photoionization may erode higher mass gas cores, so that the remnant core is reduced to substellar masses; evidently this mechanism is restricted to regions containing photoionizing OB stars. Otherwise, there are two possibilities - either the statistics of the density field are such that brown dwarfs collapse in isolation, well away from the gas reservoirs that are destined to form stars, or else, if brown dwarfs and stars form from common gas reservoirs, the brown dwarfs must somehow be removed from this environment.

Reipurth & Clarke (2001) have developed this latter line of argument, appealing to the dynamical interactions that occur within small N groupings in order to eject brown dwarfs from their natal gas reservoir. The spectacular simulations of Bate (see contribution this volume) illustrate both the propensity of molecular clouds to fragment into small N groupings, and the way that dynamical interactions indeed eject brown dwarfs.

In this contribution, we review the ejected stellar embryo scenario and its observable consequences, first considering the observational evidence that stars are indeed formed in small N groupings. We should stress, however, that the implication is not that all brown dwarfs must form this way, but rather that a significant fraction can be expected to be formed in, and ejected from, multiple systems. It is our purpose here to set out the observational discriminants that can be used to assess what fraction of brown dwarfs form in this way. We emphasize that most of these discriminants must be sought in young brown dwarfs: after a few hundred million years, the appearance and kinematics of substellar objects depend only on mass and age, and the particular mechanism that produced them is lost in the mist of time.

## 2. Multiplicity of the Youngest Stars

In a detailed study of 14 driving sources of giant Herbig-Haro flows, Reipurth (2000) found that more than 80% are binaries, and of these half are higher order systems. Given that such a survey can only under-estimate the true incidence of faint companions, and if all newborn stars go through a phase producing giant outflows, this may then suggest that the typical star forming environment contains several stars.

Embedded outflow sources are of the order of 105 yr old or less, and it follows that some of these systems must decay to reach the lower observed frequencies at later evolutionary stages. It is well established that non-hierarchical triple systems undergo rapid dynamical evolution and generally decay into a binary and an unbound, escaping third member. The binary system that is formed in this dynamical process is highly eccentric, and given that the triple disintegration is likely to take place while the stars are still actively accreting gas from an infalling envelope, it follows that the circumstellar disks will interact on an orbital timescale, which will lead to shrinkage of the orbit (e.g. Artymowicz & Lubow 1996). These interactions are again likely to cause cyclic variations in the accretion rate, with consequent pulses in the outflow production, and the giant Herbig-Haro flows may therefore represent a fossil record of the birth and early evolution of binary systems (Reipurth 2000). Altogether, it appears that the generation of giant Herbig-Haro flows, the birth of a binary, and the formation of brown dwarfs may all be different aspects of a single event, namely the dissolution of a small multiple system.

## 3. Brown Dwarfs as Ejected Stellar Embryos

If stars form in small non-hierarchical groups (Larson 1972), then evidence for these initial conditions is rapidly lost due to the dynamical disintegration of such groups. For a non-hierarchical group containing N stars, then in the limit of small N (less than a few 10s), the timescale for the group’s dissolution is roughly N crossing times. This means that even young systems such as the Orion Nebula Cluster, where the stellar distribution is very smooth at an age of a few Myr (Bate et al. 1998), could easily have evolved from an ensemble of compact few body groupings (Scally & Clarke 2002). Traces of small N clustering must instead be sought in younger (Class 0) sources (see Section 2).

The reason that such groupings dissolve is primarily because, as the system evolves, there are occasions when three stars pass close to another (i.e. close enough that their relative orbits are strongly perturbed; for stars with relative velocity $`v`$ and mass $`M`$, the three stars need to pass within a distance of $`GM/v^2`$ of each other). In such close triple encounters, the interchange of energy within the system will in general cause one of the stars to acquire more kinetic energy at the expense of hardening the relative orbit of the other two. The repetitive action of such encounters causes the cluster to become unbound (the total energy, in this case, is of course conserved, and the kinetic energy of the escaping stars is released by the formation of a binary star system). Numerous simulations of the few body problem for a system of gravitating point masses (e.g. van Albada 1968; Harrington 1975; Valtonen & Mikkola 1991; Sterzik & Durisen 1995, 1998) have shown that the resulting binary usually contains the two most massive cluster members. As pointed out by McDonald & Clarke (1993), the implication of this result is that if stars form in this way, low mass stars and, particularly, brown dwarfs, should be less likely to be found in binary systems.

In reality, the situation explored by such Nbody simulations (whereby the stars have pre-assigned masses and interact through purely point mass gravitational interactions) is very artificial, and the system should instead be investigated as an initially gas dynamical one. Gas (whether distributed or in the form of circumstellar disks) modifies the dynamical decay process, since dissipation provides an additional channel for the redistribution of energy in the system (Clarke & Pringle 1991, McDonald & Clarke 1995). In addition, distributed gas (if it contains a significant fraction of the initial cluster mass) shapes the stellar masses as it is differentially accreted on to the stars as the cluster dissolves. Pilot simulations have shown that this situation is highly inequitable, and that even if the cluster contains protostars of initially equal masses, the interplay of gas dynamics and few body stellar dynamics produces a large dynamic range of final stellar masses (Bonnell et al. 1997, 2001).

Reipurth & Clarke (2001) first explicitly linked the small N cluster scenario to the production of brown dwarfs. They emphasized that in the presence of gas, it is not merely the case that brown dwarfs are ejected because they are of low mass (as is the case in purely Nbody calculations) but that instead brown dwarfs are of low mass because they are prematurely ejected. In this scenario, the final mass of a star (or brown dwarf) is intimately linked to its dynamical and accretion history and one would therefore anticipate correlations between an object’s mass and other characteristics (such as its binarity, circumstellar environment and kinematics). In particular, if brown dwarfs indeed form within cores whose total mass considerably exceeds that of a typical brown dwarf, then objects that end up as brown dwarfs must have suffered an ejection event (or, more probably, a sequence of close encounters culminating in one which imparted them with positive energy).

The typical length scale of such close encounters, $`D`$, may be imprinted on the resulting brown dwarfs in several ways. Firstly, the ejection speed is roughly related to the orbital velocity of the dwarf during close encounter; if the typical object in the cluster has the mass of a low mass star, then the ejection speed may be crudely parameterized as $`15`$ $`D_{AU}^{0.5}`$ \[km s-1\], where $`D_{AU}`$ is the close encounter distance in AU (Armitage & Clarke 1997). Secondly, it is unlikely that the dwarf would be able to take with it a reservoir of circumstellar material with a size scale exceeding $`D`$. This limits both the mass and initial radius of disks in ejected objects. Subsequent viscous evolution can cause the disk to re-expand, but its lifetime is likely to be reduced as a result of the encounter. Thirdly, the object cannot be ejected as a binary if $`D`$ is less than or comparable to the binary separation. Thus one would not expect wide brown dwarf binaries (with separations greater than $`D`$) to be produced by this mechanism.

Further quantification of these trends requires detailed numerical simulations. Recently, Bate (see contribution this volume) has placed such interactions within the context of a star forming molecular cloud. In these simulations (see Bate 2002, and Bate, Bonnell, & Bromm 2002), supersonic turbulence produces a system of sheets and filaments of compressed gas, whose further fragmentation gives rise to a number of small N clusters. These clusters undergo the processes described above, although their evolution is more complex since each cluster is no longer a ‘closed box’ (as in previous studies) but may experience both further infall of gas as well as additional interactions as mini-clusters collide with each other. (Star formation activity is centered on the filaments in this simulation, so that cluster-cluster collisions tend to occur at the intersections of filaments as clusters fall along the filaments). The stars and brown dwarfs produced in the simulation (about $`20`$ of each) all initially form at a mass scale of $`10`$ Jupiter masses, which is the minimum Jeans mass allowed by the equation of state employed. Their final masses, which roughly conform to the observed IMF in the stellar regime, are thus entirely set by the process of competitive accretion within a small N cluster environment.

A complementary investigation led by Delgado-Donate (see contribution this volume) has instead focused on multiple random realizations of small N clusters as isolated hydrodynamic systems. By considering isolated clusters, these simulations obviously cannot follow the cluster-cluster interactions that are a feature of the whole cloud simulations of Bate. In return, the computational economy effected by not modeling the larger cloud environment (about a factor of $`6`$ in terms of CPU hours per star produced) allows one to obtain statistically significant numbers of stars for each initial condition and thus to explore the connection between initial conditions and resultant stellar properties. Furthermore, in contrast to Bate’s simulations, these isolated simulations have been integrated as Nbody systems following the accretion of the gas, until they have decayed into stable hierarchical multiples and single stars. In this way, these simulations can shed some light on the properties of wide binaries, which remain as non-hierarchical multiples in Bate’s simulations. Preliminary results from this investigation suggest that the statistical properties of the resulting stars and binaries are not unduly sensitive to the power spectrum of perturbations employed in the initial conditions; this suggests that the combination of fragmentation and competitive accretion may produce a rather robust set of stellar parameters, weakly dependent on the detailed environment.

## 4. Observational Consequences of the Ejection Model

In the following we summarize a number of observations, which may cast light on the validity of the ejection model.

Brown Dwarfs near Class 0 Sources.

The bulk of the mass of a newborn star is accumulated during its embedded phase, which lasts $``$105 yr. Such nascent objects are seen as Class 0 and Class I sources. The strong outflow activity of Class 0 sources suggest that it is during this evolutionary stage that a star builds up most of its mass. It follows that if the accretion process for a stellar embryo should be interrupted early enough to limit its mass to substellar values, the dynamical interactions leading to break-up most likely occur during the Class 0 phase. How long time a newborn brown dwarf will be observable in the vicinity of an embedded source will then depend primarily on the ejection velocity. Assume that a newborn brown dwarf is observed at a time t (years) after ejection, that it is moving with a space velocity v (km per sec) at an angle $`\alpha `$ to the line of sight, and that it is located in a star forming region at a distance d (parsecs). The projected separation s in arcseconds from the embedded source will then be $`s=0.21vtd^1sin\alpha .`$ As an example, consider a newborn brown dwarf in a nearby cloud ($`d130pc`$) moving at an angle of 60o to the line of sight with a space velocity of 1 km s-1. After 105 yr, when the embedded phase of the original Class 0 object is about to end, the brown dwarf is already 140 arcsec away, with no obvious connection to its site of birth. Furthermore, half of all ejected brown dwarfs will move into the cloud in which they were born, appearing as very weak infrared sources, thus making their detection more difficult. Altogether, if sufficiently many Class 0 and perhaps Class I sources are surveyed, a number of newborn brown dwarfs could be found. A likely brown dwarf candidate was found 4 arcsec from the deeply embedded driving source of the HH 111 jet (Reipurth et al. 1999).

Kinematics of Brown Dwarfs.

If brown dwarfs are ejected stellar embryos, they should carry kinematic signatures reflecting their origin in small multiple systems. The velocity dispersion of young stars is generally assumed to reflect the turbulent velocity of the gas out of which they formed, that is, their velocities are expected to be of the order of a km per second. If all stars are formed in small multiple systems, as suggested by Larson (1972), then an additional velocity component comes from the velocities attained when the cluster dissolves and the members drift apart. The velocity that an ejected member acquires is comparable to the orbital speed attained at pericenter in the close triple encounter. Realistic numerical simulations including gas dynamics have been carried out by Delgado-Donate and Clarke (see their contribution in this volume), and they conclude that typical velocities of brown dwarfs are mostly less than 2 km s-1. One-dimensional velocities (radial or tangential) are correspondingly smaller. This is so close to the general turbulent velocity dispersion in molecular clouds that it will be difficult to test the ejection scenario kinematically. Further, Delgado-Donate and Clarke find that there is no dependence of the emergent speed on stellar mass amongst single ejected stars, although they find (in common with Sterzik & Durisen 1998) that binary systems emerge with much lower velocities. Since the binary fraction is seemingly higher among stars than brown dwarfs, this would translate into an effective mass dependence of the emergent velocity.

Most brown dwarfs are, like stars, born within larger scale clusters. With the velocities quoted above, most stars and brown dwarfs would be retained within typical open clusters, but, after a crossing time or so, the distribution of brown dwarfs would be more extended due to their higher initial velocity dispersion. However, after about $`10^8`$ years, the velocities of cluster members are dominated by dynamical relaxation, which causes the brown dwarf distribution to be somewhat more distended than the stars (de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2000, Adams et al. 2002), irrespective of the initial velocities with which they are injected into the cluster (Moraux et al., in prep.). A proper test of the ejection scenario is made only by finding a halo of brown dwarfs around clusters small enough and/or young enough that relaxation has not yet dominated their kinematics, but the size of the expected effect may be marginal. Finally, we note that kinematics of isolated old brown dwarfs no longer reflect conditions at the time of birth, since most will have evaporated from clusters.

Infrared Excesses of Brown Dwarfs.

The members of newborn multiple systems are likely to be surrounded by substantial amounts of circumstellar matter. However, as a prelude to dynamical ejection, a brown dwarf must go through a close triple encounter, which will prune its circumstellar disk. Freefloating brown dwarfs may therefore have smaller reservoirs from which they can accrete and form planets. Armitage & Clarke (1997) showed that disk truncation in T Tauri stars could promote the rapid decline of classical T Tauri characteristics and, in analogy, we would therefore expect that ejected brown dwarfs will display the signatures of infall and outflow for a more limited time. But if encountered at an early enough age, a brown dwarf should show just the same indicators of disk accretion as any young star. In particular it should be stressed that the detection of near-infrared excesses in brown dwarfs, and thus the presence of circumstellar disk material, is not at variance with the ejection hypothesis. Excesses at near-infrared wavelengths refer to the inner edges of disks at distances of only a few stellar radii from the central object, regions which are unaffected by the disk truncation. If a brown dwarf disk is truncated at a radius of, say, 20 AU (as is typical in the simulations of Bate 2002), then the observed spectral energy distribution is affected only at wavelengths longer than about 40 $`\mu `$m (Natta & Testi 2001; Natta et al. 2002). The near- and mid-infrared energy distributions are, however, sensitively dependent on the geometry of the disk, in particular the flaring angle, about which very little is known for brown dwarfs (see also Testi et al. in this volume).

The Brown Dwarf Desert.

The “brown dwarf desert” refers to the long known fact that brown dwarfs are only rarely found as close (less than 3 AU) companions to low mass stars (on these scales the incidence of brown dwarf companions to stars with masses of 0.5 M or more does not exceed 1%). Recently, however, Gizis et al. (2001) have demonstrated that at large separations (greater than 1000 AU) one commonly finds brown dwarf companions to normal stars.

The ejection hypothesis readily explains the absence of brown dwarfs close to normal stars, because of the combination of two effects. As is well known from pure N-body simulations of small N clusters, exchange interactions tend to substitute more massive cluster members into binaries that temporarily contain only low mass components. But, as shown in gas dynamical simulations, continued accretion tends to equalize binary mass ratios (Artymowicz 1983, Bate 2000), so that a brown dwarf companion may not remain as such unless the binary is swiftly removed from the reservoir of gas that feeds it. Only under special circumstances (see Reipurth & Clarke 2001) will dynamical interactions directly produce a brown dwarf as a close companion to a star (but it may arise through subsequent orbital evolution if the two components have circumstellar material that interacts). On the other hand, the ejection hypothesis readily explains the presence of brown dwarfs as distant companions to stars, simply because not all ejections lead to an unbound system.

Of course, it is possible that the brown dwarf desert may not be a remnant of the formation process, but could result from orbital migration (Armitage & Bonnell 2002).

Brown Dwarf Binaries.

An increasing number of brown dwarfs have been found to be binaries (e.g. Martín, Brandner, & Basri 1999). The distribution of separations in brown dwarf binaries contains important memories of their formation, which any theory of brown dwarf formation must be able to reproduce. It is notable that, up to now, only rather close brown dwarf binaries have been discovered. Pairs with separations of many hundreds of AU are not seen, although the observing techniques have no obvious bias against their detection. This is equally true for brown dwarfs in clusters and in the field, perhaps suggesting that we are not seeing an effect of their environment, but a result of their formation process.

From the perspective of the ejection hypothesis, there are two aspects of this problem: the formation of binary embryos, and the survival of the nascent binary during its ejection. The latter clearly militates against wide binaries, since they would be torn apart in a close triple encounter, thus being consistent with the tentative absence of observations of wide brown dwarf pairs.

The formation of binary embryos is more problematical. McDonald & Clarke (1993) and Sterzik & Durisen (1998) showed that for purely point-mass dynamical interactions, binaries made up of two brown dwarfs would essentially never be formed. However, stellar embryos in small multiple systems are likely to be associated with substantial circumstellar material, offering a source of dissipation that can create such low mass pairs. A further problem, however, is that such pairs do not generally remain as brown dwarfs but instead accrete over the hydrogen burning mass limit. As a result, brown dwarf binaries are rather rare in the simulations of Bate (2002) and Delgado-Donate & Clarke (see this volume).

Binarity of Stellar Primaries.

Evidently, for a stellar embryo to be ejected as a brown dwarf requires the presence of at least three bodies that interact. When the third member is ejected, either into a distant but bound orbit or as an unbound object, the two remaining components are bound more closely in a harder binary. It is of great interest to examine the primaries in wide binary systems with a brown dwarf companion, since the ejection hypothesis posits that such primaries should themselves be close binaries. Depending on the distance to the object, such binaries may be resolved with adaptive optics techniques, or with spectroscopic techniques.

For close binaries with a low mass primary and a brown dwarf companion there is the possibility that the entire binary was ejected, just as brown dwarf pairs can be ejected, but current simulations suggest that this is not commonly happening. In such cases the primary is obviously not expected to be itself a binary. Clearly the study of the binarity of primaries is likely to be an important test of the ejection hypothesis. For a more detailed discussion, see Sterzik & Durisen in this volume.

The Rotation Rates of Brown Dwarfs.

If disks around brown dwarfs are truncated by the ejection process, then this may affect the rotation rate of young brown dwarfs, since magnetic coupling to an accretion disk is the most popular mechanism for explaining the relatively modest rotation rates of young stars (e.g. Königl 1991, Cameron & Campbell 1993, Armitage & Clarke 1996). It is not, however, clear whether the interactions that we are positing here (within $`20`$ AU) are close enough to release the proto-dwarf from its disk brake. Detailed simulations of magnetic braking in stars suggest that the disk brake only becomes ineffective at very low disk masses (Armitage & Clarke 1996). The value of this critical disk mass depends on the moment of inertia of the star and is higher at early times when the star is more extended. Thus, as discussed by Clarke & Bouvier (2000), if disk stripping is to have any effect on stellar rotation, it must occur at early times, which is certainly an expectation in the dynamical decay scenario considered here. In conclusion, the sign of the possible effect is clear - i.e. that objects whose disks are pruned would tend to rotate faster. What is less clear is whether the interactions we expect in mini-clusters would be close enough to make a substantial difference to the rotation rates of young brown dwarfs.

## 5. What do Newborn Brown Dwarfs look like?

It follows from the preceding discussion that if brown dwarfs are ejected stellar embryos we should, at least in principle, be able to find brown dwarfs near Class 0 sources which are extremely young, even less than 105 yr old. From an observational point of view it may, however, not be so clear what we should be looking for to identify such newborn brown dwarfs. Models for relatively old brown dwarfs are in excellent agreement with observations. But, as stressed by Baraffe et al. (2002), for young objects the models become very sensitive to the initial conditions, e.g. the initial radius. And for ages less than about 1 Myr the input conditions are still so important for the models that they cannot be meaningfully compared to observations (see also Baraffe et al. in this volume).

So what do we look for when we try to find the youngest brown dwarfs? The boundary between stellar and substellar objects at the age of nearby young associations is at a spectral type around M6, so we may expect to see strong molecular bands. However, if a stellar embryo has very recently been exposed to heavy infall, its outermost layers may be disturbed and heated at least for about 104 years after ejection, which is the Kelvin-Helmholtz timescale for young brown dwarfs. During this period the surface temperatures are possibly high enough to dissociate molecules. Also, even though the outer parts of the circumstellar disk of an ejected brown dwarf will be truncated, the inner parts are likely to be extremely perturbed by the close triple encounter (e.g. Clarke & Pringle 1991), most likely leading to active accretion. So although we expect newborn brown dwarfs to have very low luminosities, the observed luminosities may be increased through contributions from accretion. Spectroscopically, we may expect that the very youngest brown dwarfs are heavily veiled objects, perhaps obscuring all absorption features, and only showing strong H$`\alpha `$ emission. And if, as seems likely, the stellar embryos also have magnetic fields, we may expect the very youngest and heavily accreting brown dwarfs to have small jets, which may be visible in forbidden lines and as thermal radio jets. These are, however, signatures of youth commonly found among very young low mass stars, so we may find that identifying newborn brown dwarfs as bona fide substellar objects could be a difficult task.

### Acknowledgments.

We are grateful to Isabel Baraffe, Matthew Bate, Alan Boss, Eduardo Delgado-Donate, and Chris Tout for useful discussions.

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# Topological invariants of three-manifolds from 𝑈_𝑞(𝑜𝑠𝑝(1|2𝑛))

## 1 Introduction

Topological invariants of closed orientable three-manifolds may be constructed from modular or quasimodular Hopf algebras . Reshetikhin and Turaev’s construction using modular Hopf algebras relies upon several theorems relating framed links in $`S^3`$ to closed orientable three-manifolds. The Lickorish-Wallace theorem states that each framed link in $`S^3`$ determines a closed, orientable 3-manifold and that every such 3-manifold is obtainable by performing surgery upon a framed link in $`S^3`$. Kirby-Craggs, and Fenn and Rourke showed that homeomorphism classes of closed orientable three-manifolds may be generated by performing surgery upon elements of equivalence classes of framed links in $`S^3`$, where the equivalence relations are generated by the Kirby moves. By taking such combinations of isotopy invariants of links in $`S^3`$ as to render them unchanged under the Kirby moves one obtains a topological invariant of 3-manifolds.

RT took invariants of isotopy derived from the quantum group $`U_q(sl_2)`$ at even roots of unity. Their method was adapted for the quantum algebras related to the $`A_n,B_n,C_n,D_n`$ Lie algebras at all roots of unity , and the exceptional quantum algebras and quantum superalgebras $`U_q(osp(1|2))`$ and $`U_q(gl(2|1))`$ at odd roots of unity . Here we create invariants from $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ at $`q=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi i/N)`$ with $`N=2(2k+1)`$.

Resethikhin-Turaev invariants can be constructed from a class of Hopf (super)algebras more general than (quasi)modular Hopf (super)algebras. For a Hopf (super)algebra $`A`$, invariants may be constructed if $`A`$ has the following properties (where we take the quantum superdimension and quantum supertrace if $`A`$ is a quantum superalgebra)

* there exists a finite collection of mutually non-isomorphic left $`A`$-modules $`\{V_\lambda \}`$ where $`\lambda `$ ranges over some index set $`I`$ such that dim$`(V_\lambda )<\mathrm{}`$ and $`dim_q(V_\lambda )0`$, $`\lambda I`$,
* for any finite collection of $`A`$-modules $`V_{\lambda _1},V_{\lambda _2},\mathrm{},V_{\lambda _s}`$ such that $`\lambda _iI`$ for all $`i`$,

$$V_{\lambda _1}V_{\lambda _2}\mathrm{}V_{\lambda _s}=𝒱𝒵$$

where $`𝒱=_{\lambda I}(V_\lambda )^{m(\lambda )}`$, $`m(\lambda )0`$ is the multiplicity of $`V_\lambda `$ in the direct sum, and $`𝒵`$ is a possibly empty $`A`$-module with zero quantum dimension,
* for each $`V_\lambda `$ there is a dual module $`(V_\lambda )^{}(V_\lambda ^{})`$ such that $`\lambda ^{}I`$ and there exists a distinguished module $`V_0`$ such that $`(V_0)^{}V_0`$,
* the central element $`\delta =v_{\lambda I}d_\lambda \chi _\lambda (v^1)C_\lambda `$ vanishes upon acting on any $`V_\mu `$ where $`\mu \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$. Here $`\chi _\zeta (v)=q^{(\zeta ,\zeta +2\rho )}`$ and $`C_\lambda =tr_\lambda [(\text{id}\pi )(1q^{2h_\rho })R^TR]`$. $`R`$ is the universal $`R`$-matrix and $`R^T=P.R.P`$ where $`P`$ is the permutation operator. $`\{d_\lambda \}`$ is a collection of complex valued constants such that at least one $`d_\lambda `$ is non-zero. This condition ensures that combinations of isotopy invariants of links are unchanged under some of the Kirby moves, and
* the sum $`z=_{\lambda I}d_\lambda q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}dim_q(V_\lambda )`$ is non-zero.

## 2 $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ at roots of unity and its finite dimensional modules

The quantum superalgebra $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ at roots of unity is not quasi-triangular. However, the quantum superalgebra now has a class of central elements which do not exist at generic $`q`$. These central elements generate an ideal of $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$, which is also a two-sided co-ideal.

The quotient of $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ by this ideal turns out to be a quasi-triangular Hopf superalgebra. Let us denote this algebra by $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$, the details of which may be found in .

Associated with $`osp(1|2n)`$ there is a euclidean space $`H^{}`$ which has a basis of vectors $`\{ϵ_i|1in\}`$ and a bilinear form such that $`(ϵ_i,ϵ_j)=\delta _{i,j}`$. The even (resp. odd) positive roots are $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0^+=\{ϵ_i\pm ϵ_j,2ϵ_k|1i<jn,1kn\}`$ (resp. $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1^+=\{ϵ_i|1in\}`$). Define $`2\rho =_{\alpha \mathrm{\Phi }_0^+}\alpha _{\beta \mathrm{\Phi }_1^+}\beta `$, $`=\{\mathrm{},1,0,1,\mathrm{}\}`$, $`_+=\{0,1,2,\mathrm{}\}`$ and $`_n=\{0,1,2,\mathrm{},n1\}`$. Let $`XH^{}=_{i=1}^n_+ϵ_i`$ and $`X_N=X/NX`$.

Define $`\varphi _0=\{\delta \mathrm{\Phi }_0^+|\delta /2\mathrm{\Phi }_0^+\}`$ and $`\varphi _1=\mathrm{\Phi }_1^+`$. For a given $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ where $`n2`$ and $`N3`$ we define $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ by

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+=\left\{\lambda X\right|0\frac{2(\lambda +\rho ,\alpha )}{(\alpha ,\alpha )}N^{},\alpha \varphi \},$$

where $`\varphi =\varphi _0\varphi _1`$ if $`N2(mod4)`$ and $`\varphi =\varphi _0`$ otherwise. Here $`N^{}=N`$ if $`N`$ is odd and $`N^{}=N/2`$ otherwise. For $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2))`$ where $`N3`$ we define $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ by

$$\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+=\left\{\lambda X\right|0(\lambda +\rho ,\alpha )N^{\prime \prime }\},$$

where $`\alpha `$ is the single odd root and $`N^{\prime \prime }=N/4`$ if $`N2(mod4)`$ and $`N^{\prime \prime }=N^{}`$ otherwise. For each $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ we define $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ identically except that we replace $``$ by $`<`$. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ plays the role of the index set $`I`$ of the collection of $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ modules.

Let $`V`$ be the fundamental module of $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ with highest weight $`ϵ_1`$. $`V`$ is irreducible, $`2n+1`$ dimensional and has the same structure as the fundamental module of $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ . In  we prove the following lemmas and theorems.

###### Lemma 2.1

Set $`N4`$ to be even. For each $`\mu \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ there exists a finite dimensional $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ module $`V_\mu `$ with highest weight $`\mu `$ such that $`V_\mu V^t`$ for some $`t1`$. The quantum superdimension of $`V_\mu `$ is $`sdim_q(V_\mu )=lim_{q^N1}(sdim_q(V_\mu ^{gen}))`$ where $`V_\mu ^{gen}`$ is the finite dimensional irreducible $`U_q(osp(1|2n))`$ module with highest weight $`\mu `$. The $`sdim_q(V_\mu )0`$ for all $`\mu \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ and $`sdim_q(V_\mu )=0`$ for all $`\mu \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+\backslash \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$.

Let $`W`$ be the Weyl group of $`osp(1|2n)`$ and $`\tau `$ be the maximal element of $`W`$. Then $`\tau (\lambda )\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+,\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$, which implies that for each $`V_\lambda `$ there is a dual module $`(V_\lambda )^{}`$ with highest weight in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$.

In theorems 2.1 and 2.2 we assume that $`n2`$ or that $`n=1`$ and $`N4,8`$.

###### Theorem 2.1

Set $`N4`$ to be even, $`V`$ to be the fundamental module of $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ and $`ϵ_1\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$. Then for every $`t_+`$,

$$V^t=𝒱𝒵$$

where $`𝒱=_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}\left(V_\lambda \right)^{m(\lambda )}`$, $`m(\lambda )_+`$ and $`𝒵`$ is a possibly empty direct sum of indecomposable modules, each with zero quantum superdimension.

###### Theorem 2.2

Set $`N4`$ to be even and let $`V_{\lambda _i}`$ be finite dimensional $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ modules with $`\lambda _i\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ for all $`i`$. Then

$$V_{\lambda _1}V_{\lambda _2}\mathrm{}V_{\lambda _s}=𝒱^{}𝒵^{}$$

where $`s1`$ and $`𝒱^{}`$ and $`𝒵^{}`$ have the same form as in theorem 2.1

###### Lemma 2.2

Set $`N3`$ to be odd, $`ϵ_1\mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ and $`t_{N/2+1/2n}`$. Then $`V^t=\overline{𝒱}`$ where $`\overline{𝒱}`$ has the same form as $`𝒱`$ does in theorem 2.1

## 3 Finding the set $`\{d_\lambda \}`$

We know that properties i), ii) and iii) hold for $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ at even $`N`$. We now consider condition iv): there exists at least one collection of $`\{d_\lambda \}`$ that solves $`\chi _\mu (v)=_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}d_\lambda \chi _\lambda (v^1)\chi _\mu (C_\lambda )`$ for all $`\mu \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$. Now at generic $`q`$, the eigenvalue of $`C_\lambda `$ in an irreducible representation with highest weight $`\mu \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ is given by $`sch_\lambda (q^{2(\mu +\rho )})=S_{\lambda ,\mu }/Q_\mu `$ where $`S_{\lambda ,\mu }=(1)^{[\lambda ]}_{\sigma W}ϵ^{}(\sigma )q^{2(\lambda +\rho ,\sigma (\mu +\rho ))}`$, $`Q_\mu =_{\sigma W}ϵ^{}(\sigma )q^{2(\rho ,\sigma (\mu +\rho ))}`$, and where $`ϵ^{}(\sigma )=1`$ if the number of components of $`\sigma `$ that are reflections with respect to the elements of $`\varphi _0`$ is odd and $`ϵ^{}(\sigma )=1`$ otherwise. Our proofs for theorems 2.1 and 2.2 tell us that $`sch_\lambda (q^{2(\mu +\rho )})`$ is well behaved when $`q`$ is taken to the $`N^{th}`$ root of unity, and yields the desired $`\chi _\mu (C_\lambda )`$. To simplify finding the $`\{d_\lambda \}`$ we initially consider $`Q_\mu q^{(\mu +2\rho ,\mu )}=_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}d_\lambda ^{}q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}`$ where $`d_\lambda ^{}=(1)^{[\lambda ]}d_\lambda `$ and $`S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}=(1)^{[\lambda ]}S_{\lambda ,\mu }`$. To solve for the $`\{d_\lambda ^{}\}`$ we consider

$$Q_\mu q^{(\mu +2\rho ,\mu )}=\underset{\lambda X_N}{}x_\lambda q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{},$$

and set $`x_\lambda =cq^{(\lambda ,2\rho )}`$. We then have

$$Q_\mu q^{(\mu +2\rho ,\mu )}=\underset{\sigma W}{}ϵ^{}(\sigma )\underset{\lambda X_N}{}cq^{(\lambda ,\lambda )}q^{2(\lambda +\rho ,\sigma (\mu +\rho ))}.$$

To ensure $`x_\lambda `$ is independent of $`\mu `$ we undertake the mapping $`\lambda \sigma (\lambda +\rho )\sigma (\mu +\rho )`$ in the summation, which may be done as $`\sigma (\lambda +\rho )\sigma (\mu +\rho )X_N`$ and the summation remains over $`X_N`$. We then obtain

$$Q_\mu q^{(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}=\underset{\lambda X_N}{}cq^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}\underset{\sigma W}{}ϵ^{}(\sigma )q^{2(\rho ,\sigma (\mu +\rho ))}$$

which results in $`c^1=_{\lambda X_N}q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}`$ and

$$x_\lambda =q^{(\lambda ,2\rho )}/\underset{\lambda X_N}{}q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}.$$

Now $`q^{(\lambda ^{},\lambda ^{}+2\rho )}=(1)^pq^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}`$ where $`\lambda ^{}=\lambda +N/2ϵ_i`$ for any $`ϵ_i`$ and $`p=1`$ if $`N=4k`$, $`p=0`$ if $`N=2(2k+1)`$. Then $`c`$ is not well defined if $`N=4k`$ and we set $`N=2(2k+1)`$ for the remainder of this paper. Now $`x_\lambda ^{}q^{(\lambda ^{},\lambda ^{}+2\rho )}S_{\lambda ^{},\mu }^{}=x_\lambda q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}`$ where $`\lambda ^{}=\lambda +N/2ϵ_i`$ for any $`ϵ_i`$. It then follows that $`_{\lambda X_N}x_\lambda q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}=2^n_{\lambda X_{N/2}}x_\lambda q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}.`$

Let $`\overline{N}=N/2`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\overline{N}}^+`$ be the fundamental domain for $`X_{\overline{N}}`$ under the action of the affine Weyl group $`W_{\overline{N}}`$ of $`U_q^{(N)}(so_{2n+1})`$ . The affine Weyl groups $`W_{N/2}`$ of $`U_q^{(N)}(osp(1|2n))`$ and $`U_q^{(N)}(so_{2n+1})`$ are identical and as $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_{\overline{N}}^+=\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ it follows that $`\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+`$ is a fundamental domain for $`X_{N/2}`$ under the action of $`W_{N/2}`$.

Now $`S_{\sigma (\lambda +\rho )\rho ,\mu }^{}=ϵ^{}(\sigma )S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}`$ for any $`\sigma W`$. If $`\lambda \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+\backslash \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$ there either exists some $`\sigma W`$ such that $`\sigma (\lambda +\rho )\rho =\lambda `$ and $`ϵ^{}(\sigma )=1`$ or some $`wW`$ such that $`ϵ^{}(w)=1`$ and $`\lambda =w(\lambda +\rho )\rho +kN/2ϵ_i`$ for some $`ϵ_i`$ and $`k`$. As $`S_{\lambda ^{},\mu }^{}=S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}`$ where $`\lambda ^{}=\lambda +N/2ϵ_i`$, it follows that $`S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}=0`$ for $`\lambda \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_N^+\backslash \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+`$.

Then

$$2^n\underset{\nu X_{N/2}}{}x_\nu q^{(\nu ,\nu +2\rho )}S_{\nu ,\mu }^{}=2^n\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}{}\underset{\sigma W}{}ϵ^{}(\sigma )x_{\sigma (\lambda +\rho )\rho }q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}.$$

As

$$\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}{}d_\lambda ^{}q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}=2^n\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}{}\underset{\sigma W}{}ϵ^{}(\sigma )x_{\sigma (\lambda +\rho )\rho }q^{(\lambda ,\lambda +2\rho )}S_{\lambda ,\mu }^{}$$

we obtain

$$d_\lambda =q^{(2\rho ,\rho )}\gamma .sdim_q(V_\lambda )/\underset{\mu X_{N/2}}{}q^{(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}$$

where $`\gamma `$ is the denominator in the expression of the quantum superdimension. Note that $`d_\lambda ^{}=d_\lambda `$ where $`\lambda ^{}=\tau (\lambda )`$. The denominator of the $`d_\lambda `$ does not vanish: $`_{\mu X_{N/2}}q^{(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}=_{\mu X_N}q^{(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}/2^n`$ and $`_{\mu X_N}q^{(\mu ,\mu +2\rho )}=_{k=0}^{n1}G(N,2k+1)`$ where $`G(N,m)=_{i=0}^{N1}q^{i(i+m)}=(1+i)\sqrt{N}/x^{m^2}`$ and $`x`$ is a complex primitive $`4N^{th}`$ root of unity.

## 4 Constructing the invariant

The final matter we need to consider is condition v): that

$$z=\underset{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}{}d_\lambda q^{(\lambda +2\rho ,\lambda )}sdim_q(V_\lambda )0.$$

It follows from  that $`z0`$. Given $`\zeta =_{\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }_N^+}d_\lambda sdim_q(\lambda )`$, $`\zeta 0`$ and $`z=d_0\zeta `$.

Now it is a relatively simple matter to construct the invariants. Denote a framed link in $`S^3`$ by $`L`$ and the 3-manifold it gives rise to by $`M_L`$. Let $`(L)`$ stand for the Reshetikhin-Turaev functor applied to $`L`$ (see ). Set $`A_L`$ to be the linking matrix of $`L`$ defined by: $`a_{ii}`$ is the framing number of the $`i^{th}`$ component of $`L`$ and $`a_{ij}`$, $`ij`$ is the linking number between the $`i^{th}`$ and $`j^{th}`$ components of $`L`$. Let $`\sigma (A_L)`$ be the number of nonpositive eigenvalues of $`A_L`$. Then

$$(M_L)=z^{\sigma (A_L)}(L)$$

is a topological invariant of $`M_L`$.


text:
# Search for time-dependent 𝐵_𝑠⁰-(𝐵_𝑠⁰)̄ oscillations using a vertex charge dipole technique

## I INTRODUCTION

Neutral $`B`$ meson mixing plays a crucial role in the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements $`V_{ts}`$ and $`V_{td}`$. However, the extraction of these elements from measurements of the oscillation frequency is complicated by the presence of hadronic uncertainties. Lattice QCD calculations Bernard  give a 15–20% uncertainty in the determination of $`|V_{td}|`$ from the precisely measured value of the $`B_d^0`$ oscillation frequency, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d`$, due to the large uncertainty in the decay constant and the “B” parameter for $`B_d^0`$ mesons. This uncertainty can be reduced by extracting the ratio $`|V_{ts}/V_{td}|`$ from the ratio of $`B_s^0`$ and $`B_d^0`$ oscillation frequencies, $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s/\mathrm{\Delta }m_d`$, as many theoretical uncertainties common to $`B_s^0`$ and $`B_d^0`$ mixing cancel, leading to a reduced theoretical uncertainty of 5–10% Bernard ; Kronfeld . In the framework of the Standard Model, $`|V_{ts}|`$ is constrained by unitarity so the measurement of the $`B_s^0`$ oscillation frequency will significantly improve our knowledge of $`|V_{td}|`$.

Measuring the oscillation frequency requires three ingredients: the $`B^0`$ or $`\overline{B^0}`$ flavor at both production and decay, and the proper decay time. In the Standard Model, one expects $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ to be an order of magnitude larger than $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d`$, making it difficult to measure as the rapid oscillations have to be resolved in the detector. The SLD pixel CCD vertex detector is particularly well suited to this task thanks to its excellent three-dimensional vertex resolution. The analysis presented here determines the $`B`$ flavor at production by exploiting the large forward-backward asymmetry of polarized $`Z^0b\overline{b}`$ decays and uses additional information from the hemisphere opposite that of the reconstructed $`B`$ decay. The $`B`$ flavor at decay is tagged by the charge difference between the $`B`$ and cascade $`D`$ decay vertices. This novel “charge dipole” technique relies heavily on the high resolution of the vertex detector to reconstruct separate secondary and tertiary vertices originating from the $`BD`$ decay chain. Throughout this paper, when reference is made to a specific state, the charge conjugate state is also implied.

## II APPARATUS

The analysis uses a sample of $`\mathrm{400\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ hadronic $`Z^0`$ decays collected by the SLD experiment at the SLC between 1996 and 1998. The detector elements most relevant to this analysis are the pixel CCD Vertex Detector (VXD) vxd3  for precise track position measurements near the SLC Interaction Point (IP), and the Central Drift Chamber (CDC) for charged particle reconstruction and momentum measurement. Charged tracks are reconstructed using hits in both VXD and CDC. The track impact parameter resolution at high momentum is measured to be 7.8 $`\mu `$m transverse to the beam direction ($`xy`$ plane) and 9.7 $`\mu `$m in the plane containing the beam direction ($`rz`$ plane). The centroid of the stable, micron-sized IP in the $`xy`$ plane is reconstructed using tracks in sets of $`30`$ sequential hadronic $`Z^0`$ decays, with a measured precision of $`\sigma _{IP}=3.5\mu `$m. The $`z`$ coordinate of the IP is determined event by event using the median $`z`$ position of the tracks at their point of closest approach to the beam line. A precision of $`\sigma _z17\mu `$m is achieved for $`Z^0b\overline{b}`$ events, as estimated from the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation.

For a description of the SLD detector and the MC simulation see Ref. sldpaper . Decays of $`B_s^0`$ mesons are modeled according to the decay modes of $`B_d^0`$ mesons juliathesis  assuming SU(3) flavor symmetry. The simulation has been tuned to reproduce tracking efficiencies and impact parameter resolutions measured in the data.

## III EVENT SELECTION

The selection of $`b`$-hadron candidates proceeds in two stages. First, hadronic $`Z^0`$ decays are selected. Second, $`Z^0b\overline{b}`$ events are selected with an inclusive topological reconstruction of $`b`$-hadron decays. Vertex and kinematical information (mass and momentum) is used at this stage to remove $`udsc`$ background. This second stage also serves as a means to select tracks associated with the $`b`$-hadron decay chain.

In the first stage, we select a sample of $`\mathrm{310\hspace{0.17em}488}`$ hadronic $`Z^0`$ decays. The criteria, detailed in Ref. sldpaper , aim to remove leptonic final states, two-photon collisions and beam-induced background events. The remaining background, predominately due to $`Z^0\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ events, is estimated to be $`<0.1`$%.

In the second stage, each event is divided into two hemispheres with respect to the thrust axis. In each hemisphere, a search is made for three-dimensional space points with high track overlap density which are displaced from the IP, taking the individual track resolution functions into account zvtop . At this stage, no attempt is made to separate $`B`$ and $`D`$ decay vertices and a single “seed” vertex (SV) is formed containing all tracks from the $`b`$-hadron decay chain. Tracks are required to have $`3`$ VXD hits, momentum transverse to the beam line $`p_{}>250`$ MeV/c, and three-dimensional impact parameter $`<3`$ mm. Tracks consistent with originating from a $`\gamma `$ conversion or from $`K^0`$ or $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay are removed. Identified vertices are required to be within a radius of 2.3 cm of the center of the beam pipe to remove vertices resulting from interactions with the detector material. Two-prong vertices are required to have an invariant mass at least 0.015 GeV/c2 away from the nominal $`K_s^0`$ mass to remove most of the remaining $`K_s^0`$ decays. A set of two neural networks is used to suppress light-flavor ($`udsc`$) background and to select the charged tracks associated with the $`b`$-hadron decay btom . The first neural network takes as input the distance between the IP and the SV, that distance normalized by its error, and the angle between the vertex axis and the total momentum vector of the SV. The vertex axis is defined as the line joining the IP and the SV. At least one good vertex is found in 72.7% of bottom, 28.2% of charm, and 0.41% of $`uds`$ quark hemispheres in the MC simulation. The second neural network improves the $`b`$-hadron charge and mass reconstruction by associating tracks not used in the initial vertexing to the seed vertex. For each track, five parameters are taken as input to the neural network. The first four (measured at the point of closest approach between the track and the vertex axis) are the distance of closest approach, the distance between the IP and the point of closest approach along the vertex axis, the ratio between that distance and the IP-to-SV distance, and the angle between the track and the vertex axis. The fifth parameter is the three-dimensional impact parameter normalized by its error. A $``$10% inefficiency in full CDC-VXD track reconstruction is partly recovered by also including tracks reconstructed in the VXD alone (“VXD-only” tracks). Including VXD-only tracks with at least one hit in each of the three VXD layers reduces the tracking inefficiency to $``$3% for heavy hadron decay products. These tracks are used for vertex charge reconstruction but not for vertex momentum or mass reconstruction because of their poor momentum resolution.

A sample of $`\mathrm{53\hspace{0.17em}709}`$ $`Z^0b\overline{b}`$ candidates is then selected by requiring that either hemisphere in the event contain a seed vertex with mass $`M>2`$ GeV/c2, where $`M`$ is partially corrected for missing neutral decay products sldpaper . The fraction of remaining light-flavor events is estimated to be 2.9% from the simulation.

## IV CHARGE DIPOLE RECONSTRUCTION AND DECAY FLAVOR TAG

In the last phase of the analysis, we aim to reconstruct both $`B`$ and $`D`$ decay vertices in a given hemisphere. We can then tag the $`B^0`$ or $`\overline{B^0}`$ decay flavor based on the charge difference between these vertices. The charge difference is expected to be $`\pm 2`$ (0) for decays with a charged (neutral) $`D`$ meson. This charge dipole method relies on the fact that the $`B`$ and cascade $`D`$ flight directions are very nearly co-linear and the $`B`$ and $`D`$ decay points are separated along the flight direction. The final vertex reconstruction is carried out separately for each event hemisphere and proceeds in two steps.

In the first step, the $`b`$-hadron flight direction is determined using a set of tracks selected by one of two different procedures. The main track selection procedure uses the set of tracks (including VXD-only tracks) associated with a seed vertex. An alternative procedure is used if no SV is found in the hemisphere (representing 15% of the decays in the final sample). In this case, tracks are required to have either $``$3 VXD hits and $`p_{}>250`$ MeV/c, or $``$2 VXD hits, $``$23 CDC hits, $`p_{}>250`$ MeV/c, a $`\chi ^2/DOF<8`$ for both CDC and CDC+VXD track fits, a first CDC hit with a radius $`<39.0`$ cm, a 2D impact parameter in $`xy<`$1 cm, and a $`z`$ distance of closest approach to the IP $`<1.5`$ cm. The latter procedure is useful to recover part of the inefficiency of the SV finding algorithm for $`b`$ hadrons decaying close to the IP, a region where the sensitivity to $`B_s^0`$ oscillations is highest. The tracks selected with either of the two above procedures are then used to estimate the $`b`$-hadron flight direction. This is done with a “ghost” track anchored at the IP and initially given an error of 25 $`\mu `$m. Each of the selected tracks is individually vertexed with the ghost track and the sum of the two-prong vertex fit $`\chi ^2`$ values is computed. The direction of the ghost track is varied until this $`\chi ^2`$ sum is minimized—with the final direction representing the best estimate of the $`b`$-hadron line of flight. The ghost track error is then scaled such that the largest single two-prong vertex fit $`\chi ^2`$ equals 1.

In the second step, the selected tracks are divided into subsets defining decay vertices along the ghost track. This is done using the following iterative procedure. Initially, the probabilities for all two-track $`+`$ ghost track and track $`+`$ IP candidate vertices are calculated. The vertex with the highest fit probability is saved and its track(s) is (are) removed from the list of available tracks. If the highest probability vertex is one of the track $`+`$ IP vertices, it defines a new IP vertex. The highest probability vertex then serves as a new candidate vertex for the next step, where again all combinations of the remaining tracks with the new candidate vertex, with each other and the ghost track, and with the IP are formed. This process continues until all vertex fit probabilities are lower than 1%. A single IP results from this procedure. All remaining tracks (not incorporated in the IP or a multi-prong vertex) are then combined with the ghost track to form one-prong vertices. One advantage of this technique is that it allows for the reconstruction of one-prong decay vertices, which are fairly common in both $`B`$ and $`D`$ decays. Details about the ability of this technique to reconstruct the correct number of vertices can be found in Ref. achou .

Hemispheres with exactly two vertices (in addition to the IP) are selected. The (secondary) vertex that is closer to the IP is labeled “$`B`$” and the (tertiary) vertex farther away is labeled “$`D`$”. If the $`D`$ vertex contains two or more tracks, the $`B`$ vertex is further refined by adding a virtual $`D`$ “track” to those tracks already attached to the $`B`$ vertex and a new vertex fit is performed. The $`D`$ track is formed using the $`D`$ vertex position and the net momentum direction of the $`D`$ vertex tracks. The error matrix of the $`D`$ track is scaled as a function of the $`D`$ vertex mass to partially account for the fact that the $`D`$ meson is not fully reconstructed.

The vertices must satisfy a series of criteria to guarantee that the $`B`$ and $`D`$ vertices are well separated and well reconstructed: the $`B`$ vertex is downstream from the IP and has a radius $`<2.2`$ cm, the distance between the $`B`$ and $`D`$ vertices ($`L_{BD}`$) satisfies $`250\mu `$m $`<L_{BD}<1`$ cm, the $`D`$ vertex mass is smaller than 2.0 GeV/c2 (assuming all tracks are pions), the ghost track error is smaller than 300 $`\mu `$m, and the cosine of the angle between the nearest jet axis direction and the straight line connecting the IP and the $`B`$ vertex is greater than 0.9. For purposes of flavor tagging (see below), the $`B`$ and $`D`$ vertex charges are required to be different. Several cuts are applied to enhance the $`B_s^0`$ purity and further improve the quality of the reconstruction for $`B_s^0`$ candidates: the net charge $`Q_{tot}`$ of all tracks associated with the decay chain is required to be zero and neither vertex may contain a VXD-only track with $`p_{}>4`$ GeV/c to make sure that the charge is reliably reconstructed. Finally, $`B_d^0`$ decays are suppressed by vetoing decays including $`D^+`$ candidates. To this end, a veto is applied if slow pion candidates in either $`B`$ or $`D`$ vertices have a $`\pi D_{vtx}D_{vtx}`$ mass difference less than 0.16 GeV/c2. This veto reduces the $`B_s^0`$ ($`B_d^0`$) selection efficiency by 5% (13%) and results in a $`B_s^0`$ purity increase of 5%. For all data and MC events, we remove hemispheres already containing a vertex selected in two complementary analyses, one with fully reconstructed $`D_s`$ Dstracks  and the other with a lepton + $`D`$ vertex. Such a removal is necessary to avoid statistical correlations and facilitate the combination of results from different analyses.

After applying all the above cuts, a sample of $`\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}462}`$ decays remains. The sample composition is 15.7% $`B^+`$, 57.2% $`B_d^0`$, 15.9% $`B_s^0`$, 10.1% $`b`$ baryon, and 1.1% $`udsc`$, as determined from the simulation. The decay flavor is determined by the sign of a vertex charge dipole defined as $`\delta QL_{BD}\times SIGN(Q_DQ_B)`$, where $`Q_B`$ ($`Q_D`$) is the charge of the $`B`$ ($`D`$) vertex. Positive (negative) values of $`\delta Q`$ tag $`\overline{B^0}`$ ($`B^0`$) decays. Figure 1 shows the charge dipole distribution for the data sample and also indicates the separation between hadrons containing $`b`$ or $`\overline{b}`$ quarks in the simulation.

The mistag probability for selected $`B_s^0`$ ($`B_d^0`$) decays is 22% (24%), as determined from the simulation. The mistag probability depends on the charm content of the decay products. For example, the mistag probability is only 10% for $`B_s^0D_sX`$ decays ($`X`$ represents any state without charm) but 46% for $`B_s^0`$ decays proceeding through a $`bc\overline{c}s`$ transition, where the latter category accounts for 24% of the selected $`B_s^0`$ decays. Detailed studies of $`B`$ and $`D`$ vertex charge, multiplicity and separation show that the simulation reproduces the data well (see Ref. juliathesis ).

The proper time is computed using the measured decay length $`L`$ and momentum $`p`$ of the $`B_s^0`$ candidate, $`T=Lm_B/pc`$. The decay length is defined as the distance between the IP and the $`B`$ vertex. In the particular case of $`B`$ and $`D`$ vertices both containing just one track (representing 17% of the final sample), the $`B`$ decay length is reconstructed by averaging those decay lengths obtained from the ghost track + $`B`$ track vertex and the $`B`$ track + $`D`$ track vertex. The decay length residuals for correctly (incorrectly) tagged $`B_s^0D_{(s)}X`$ decays containing three or more tracks can be described by the sum of a core Gaussian with a width of $`\sigma _L=78\mu `$m ($`109\mu `$m) and a tail Gaussian with a width of $`\sigma _L=304\mu `$m ($`584\mu `$m), where the fraction of events in the core Gaussian is 60%. The momentum of the $`B_s^0`$ candidate is reconstructed with an optimized average of two different methods. The first method bmoore  starts with tracks associated with the decay and iteratively adds high energy ($`E>3`$ GeV) neutral clusters (from the electromagnetic calorimeter) close to the $`B`$ vertex line of flight, until the invariant mass of the decay products is close to the $`B`$ mass. The second method bdong  does not use calorimeter information but relies on the associated tracks and the amount of missing transverse momentum to estimate the $`B`$ momentum. A parametrization with the sum of two Gaussians yields a 60% core width of $`\sigma _p/p=0.07`$ and a 40% tail width of $`\sigma _p/p=0.21`$ for selected $`B_s^0`$ decays.

## V PRODUCTION FLAVOR TAG

The $`B`$ flavor at production is determined with a combination of six tags: polarized forward-backward asymmetry, jet charge, vertex charge, charge dipole, lepton and kaon tags, where all but the first are combined in an “opposite hemisphere charge” tag using a series of neural networks. For a detailed description of the polarized forward-backward asymmetry $`\stackrel{~}{A}_{FB}`$ see Ref. sldpaper . Briefly, left- (right-) polarized electrons tag $`b`$ ($`\overline{b}`$) quarks in the forward hemisphere, and $`\overline{b}`$ ($`b`$) quarks in the backward hemisphere. Averaged over the acceptance, this yields a mistag probability of 28% for our average electron beam polarization of $`P_e=73\%`$. The opposite hemisphere charge tag employs tracks and topological vertices reconstructed in the hemisphere opposite that of the $`B_s^0`$ decay candidate. The available tags are: (i) the jet charge tag, where tracks are used to form a momentum-weighted track charge sum sldpaper , (ii) the total charge of tracks and charge dipole of a $`b`$-hadron decay, (iii) the charge of a kaon identified in the Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector and associated with a $`b`$-hadron decay (if more than one kaon is found, the total kaon charge is used), and (iv) the charge of a lepton originating from a $`b`$-hadron decay. These tags are combined using a series of neural networks to form an overall production flavor tag characterized by a $`b`$-quark probability. The neural networks take into account correlations between the different tags as well as vertex charge, mass and decay length dependencies. The corresponding average mistag rate is 29%. Finally, the result is analytically combined with the independent $`b`$-quark probability from the $`\stackrel{~}{A}_{FB}`$ tag. The overall average mistag probability is 22% but the information is used on an event-by-event basis, so that a significant fraction of the events have a very high production flavor tag purity. The combined tag is 100% efficient. Figure 2 shows the $`b`$-quark probability distributions for data and MC as selected in this analysis. It indicates a clear separation between $`b`$ and $`\overline{b}`$ quarks and good agreement between data and simulation.

## VI FIT METHOD AND RESULTS

Decays are tagged as mixed (unmixed) if the production and decay flavor tags disagree (agree). The probability for a decay to be in the mixed sample is expressed as

$`𝒫_{mixed}(t,\mathrm{\Delta }m_s)=f_u{\displaystyle \frac{e^{t/\tau _u}}{\tau _u}}\left[w^P(1w_u^D)+(1w^P)w_u^D\right]`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_d}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{t/\tau _d}}{\tau _d}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{5}{}}}g_{dk}\left[(1w_{dk}^D)(1+[2w^P1]\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }m_dt)+w_{dk}^D(1[2w^P1]\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }m_dt)\right]\right)`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_s}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{t/\tau _s}}{\tau _s}}\left({\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{5}{}}}g_{sk}\left[(1w_{sk}^D)(1+[2w^P1]\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }m_st)+w_{sk}^D(1[2w^P1]\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Delta }m_st)\right]\right)`$
$`+`$ $`f_{bry}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{t/\tau _{bry}}}{\tau _{bry}}}\left[w^P(1w_{bry}^D)+(1w^P)w_{bry}^D\right]`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_{udsc}}{2}}F_{udsc}(t),`$
where $`f_j`$ represents the fraction of each $`b`$-hadron type and background ($`j=u,d,s`$, $`bry`$, and $`udsc`$ correspond to $`B^+`$, $`B_d^0`$, $`B_s^0`$, $`b`$ baryon, and $`udsc`$ background), $`F_{udsc}(t)`$ describes the proper time distribution of the $`udsc`$ background, $`\tau _j`$ is the lifetime for $`b`$ hadrons of type $`j`$, $`w^P`$ is the production flavor mistag probability, $`w_u^D`$ and $`w_{bry}^D`$ are the decay flavor mistag probabilities for $`B^+`$ and $`b`$ baryons, $`w_{dk}^D`$ and $`w_{sk}^D`$ are the decay flavor mistag probabilities for $`B_d^0`$ and $`B_s^0`$ with the index $`k=1,\mathrm{},5`$ representing five different decay final states ($`D^0X`$, $`D^\pm X`$, $`D_sX`$, charmed baryon $`X`$, and final states resulting from a $`bc\overline{c}s`$ transition), and $`g_{dk}`$ ($`g_{sk}`$) is the fraction of $`B_d^0`$ ($`B_s^0`$) decays into each of the above final states. A similar expression for the probability $`𝒫_{unmixed}`$ to observe a decay tagged as unmixed is obtained by replacing the production flavor mistag rate $`w^P`$ by $`(1w^P)`$.

The quantities in Eq. (1) are determined on an event-by-event basis. The fractions $`f_j`$ depend on the angle $`\theta _T`$ between the event thrust axis and the beam direction to account for the decrease in the $`Q_{tot}`$ reconstruction purity at high $`|\mathrm{cos}\theta _T|`$. The mistag probability $`w^P`$ depends on $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _T`$, $`P_e`$, and the opposite hemisphere charge neural network output. The mistag probabilities $`w_{jk}^D`$ depend on the reconstructed decay length in order to take into account the degradation of the charge dipole tag close to the IP. This effect is rather weak for $`B_d^0`$, $`B_s^0`$ and $`b`$-baryon decays but it is significant for $`B^+`$ decays. Finally, the decay final state fractions $`g_{dk}`$ and $`g_{sk}`$ are parametrized as a function of $`M`$.

Detector and vertex selection effects are introduced by including a time-dependent efficiency function $`\epsilon (t)`$ and convolving the above probability density functions with a proper time resolution function $`(T,t)`$: $`P_{mixed}(T,\mathrm{\Delta }m_s)=_0^{\mathrm{}}𝒫_{mixed}(t,\mathrm{\Delta }m_s)(T,t)\epsilon (t)𝑑t,`$ where $`t`$ is the “true” time and $`T`$ is the reconstructed time. A similar expression applies to the unmixed probability $`P_{unmixed}`$. Each term of the probability density function is divided by a normalization factor given by $`_0^{10\mathrm{ps}}(P_{mixed}+P_{unmixed})𝑑T`$, which accounts for the limited range of reconstructed proper time considered in this analysis. The resolution function is parametrized by the sum of two Gaussian and two Novosibirsk functions Novo ,

$`(T,t)`$ $`=`$ $`0.36f_{Gauss}(T,t;\sigma ^{11},\mu _c)+0.24f_{Gauss}(T,t;\sigma ^{12},\mu _c)`$ (2)
$`+0.24f_{Novo}(T,t;\sigma ^{21},\mu _t,\zeta )+0.16f_{Novo}(T,t;\sigma ^{22},\mu _t,\zeta ).`$
The proper time resolution $`\sigma ^{ij}`$ is a function of proper time that depends on $`p`$, $`\sigma _p`$, and $`\sigma _L`$,

$$\sigma ^{ij}(t)=\left[\left(\frac{\sigma _L^im_B}{pc}\right)^2+\left(t\frac{\sigma _p^j}{p}\right)^2\right]^{1/2},$$
(3)
where the index $`i=1`$ ($`i=2`$) corresponds to the core (tail) component of the decay length resolution and the index $`j=1`$ ($`j=2`$) corresponds to the core (tail) component of the relative momentum resolution. Slight offsets in the decay length reconstruction are modeled by the time-dependent parameters $`\mu _c`$ and $`\mu _t`$, whereas an asymmetric tail is modeled by the time-dependent parameter $`\zeta `$. For each decay, the decay length resolution is computed from the vertex fit and IP position measurement errors, with a scale factor determined using the MC simulation (scale factors for correctly tagged decays are typically $``$1.0 for the core and $``$2.0 for the tail components). The momentum resolution is parametrized as a function of the total track energy in each decay, with parameters extracted from the MC simulation. The efficiency $`\epsilon (t)`$ is also parametrized using the MC simulation. All parametrizations are performed separately for each $`b`$-hadron type and for right and wrong charge dipole tags. As a consequence, different resolution functions are used for final states containing one or two charm hadrons.

The study of the time dependence of $`B_s^0`$ mixing is carried out using the amplitude method Moser . A likelihood fit to the proper time distribution of mixed and unmixed events is performed to determine the oscillation amplitude $`A`$ at fixed values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$. That is, in the expression for the mixed and unmixed probabilities, one replaces $`\left[1\pm \mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_st)\right]`$ with $`\left[1\pm A\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_st)\right]`$ and fits for $`A`$. This method is similar to Fourier transform analysis and has been tested extensively with simulated samples generated at several different values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$. The measured amplitude spectrum is shown in Fig. 3. The measured values are consistent with $`A=0`$ for the whole range of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ up to 25 ps-1. A signal for $`B_s^0`$ mixing, corresponding to an amplitude of $`A=1`$, is ruled out for two regions of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ in the lower half of this range, where $`A+1.645\sigma _A<1`$.

As a check of the analysis, we performed a fit for the $`B_d^0`$ oscillation frequency and found a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d=0.537\pm 0.030`$(stat) ps-1, in agreement with the world average value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d=0.489\pm 0.008`$ ps-1 PDG2002 . Conversely, fitting for the $`B_d^0`$ oscillation amplitude at a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d=0.489`$ ps-1 yields $`A=0.956\pm 0.065`$, a value consistent with unity as expected for a signal. Furthermore, the charge dipole mistag rate is measured directly from the data for $`B_d^0`$ and $`B^+`$ decays and found to agree with MC values within uncertainties (see next section). To test the charge dipole tag for $`B_s^0`$ decays, we select semileptonic decay candidates tagged as mixed and with $`T<2`$ ps to obtain a subsample with a $`B_s^0`$ purity of 28%. The charge dipole tag is found to agree with the charge of the lepton in $`(95\pm 2)\%`$ of the cases in the data, to be compared with $`(94\pm 1)\%`$ in the simulation.

## VII SYSTEMATICS

Systematic uncertainties have been computed following Ref. Moser  and are summarized in Table 1 for several $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ values. The systematic uncertainty takes into account both the change in the measured amplitude and in its error

$$\sigma _A^{syst}=A^{var}A^{nom}+(1A^{nom})\frac{\sigma _A^{var}\sigma _A^{nom}}{\sigma _A^{nom}},$$
(4)
where $`A^{nom}`$ ($`\sigma _A^{nom}`$) is the nominal amplitude (error) and $`A^{var}`$ ($`\sigma _A^{var}`$) is the amplitude (error) obtained for a particular variation of the parameters of the likelihood function. It should be noted that the statistical uncertainty dominates for all the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ values considered.

Uncertainties in the sample composition are estimated by varying the fraction of $`udsc`$ background by $`\pm 20\%`$ and the production fractions of $`B_s^0`$ and $`b`$ baryons according to $`0.100\pm 0.012`$ and $`0.099\pm 0.017`$, respectively WORKG . Since the $`B_s^0`$ purity is one of the most important parameters in the analysis, we also varied the $`B_d^0`$ and $`B^+`$ branching fractions to the five decay final states ($`D^0X`$, $`D^\pm X`$, $`D_sX`$, charmed baryon $`X`$, and $`c\overline{c}sX`$) by twice the uncertainty given in Ref. PDG2002 . The corresponding branching fractions for $`B_s^0`$ decays are varied by $`\pm 20\%`$ to account for possible deviations due to SU(3) flavor breaking. Furthermore, charge reconstruction uncertainties are evaluated from comparisons between data and MC simulation, especially relying on self-calibration tests detailed in Ref. btom . To account for all uncertainties described above, we vary the $`B_s^0`$ purity by $`\pm 13.1\%`$. As a cross-check of the fraction of $`B_s^0`$ mesons in the selected sample, we fit for $`f_s`$ with a $`\chi ^2`$ fit to the fraction of mixed decays as a function of proper time. A value of $`0.159\pm 0.018`$ is obtained, consistent with the MC value of 0.159. Other physics modeling uncertainties, which are due to uncertainties in the $`b`$-hadron lifetimes and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_d`$ WORKG , are found to be negligible.

Uncertainties in the modeling of the detector include $`\pm 7\%`$ and $`\pm 10\%`$ variations in decay length and momentum resolutions, respectively. The decay length resolution uncertainty is determined from 3-prong $`\tau `$ decay vertices in the data and the momentum resolution is confirmed to within 10% by comparing the width of the energy distribution in the data with that expected from $`b`$-quark fragmentation bdong . The systematic uncertainty due to the particular choice of proper time resolution function is evaluated by varying core fractions and offset corrections.

The production flavor tag systematic error accounts for the uncertainties in the forward-backward asymmetry and opposite hemisphere charge tags. Dominant uncertainties for the forward-backward asymmetry tag are the electron beam polarization $`P_e=0.73\pm 0.02`$ and the parity-violating parameter $`A_b=0.935\pm 0.040`$. The uncertainty in the opposite hemisphere charge tag is extracted from events in which both hemispheres have such a tag. These double-tagged events provide a direct measurement of the average mistag rate, which agrees very well with the MC value and has an uncertainty of $`0.008`$. The total uncertainty in the average production flavor mistag probability is estimated to be $`0.008`$. Furthermore, we allow for a deviation in the shape of the $`b`$-quark probability distribution for the data. The corresponding uncertainty is dominated by a $`7\%`$ uncertainty in the slope of the $`b`$-quark probability as a function of opposite hemisphere charge neural network output, as extracted from double-tagged events in the data.

The decay flavor mistag probability is varied by $`\pm 7\%`$ for all $`b`$ hadrons. This uncertainty is determined from $`\chi ^2`$ fits to the $`B_d^0`$ and $`B^+`$ mistag probabilities in the measured dipole-tagged forward-backward asymmetry and the fraction of mixed decays as a function of proper time. These fits confirm that the mistag rate for $`B_d^0`$ and $`B^+`$ decays is correctly modeled in the simulation. To account for a possible deviation from SU(3) flavor symmetry, an additional 7% uncertainty is assigned to $`B_s^0`$ decays. This value is obtained assuming an additional 20% uncertainty in the branching fraction for $`B_s^0`$ decays proceeding via a $`bc\overline{c}s`$ transition (since these dominate the mistag rate).

Including the systematic uncertainties, the following ranges of $`B_s^0`$ oscillation frequencies are excluded at the 95% C.L.: $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s<4.9`$ ps-1 and $`7.9<\mathrm{\Delta }m_s<10.3`$ ps-1. That is, the condition $`A+1.645\sigma _A<1`$ is satisfied for those $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ values. The sensitivity to set a 95% C.L. lower limit, defined as the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s`$ value below which $`1.645\sigma _A<1`$, is found to be 8.7 ps-1.

## VIII CONCLUSIONS

We have performed a search for $`B_s^0\text{}\overline{B_s^0}`$ oscillations using a sample of $`\mathrm{400\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ hadronic $`Z^0`$ decays collected by the SLD experiment. The cascade structure of $`b`$-hadron decays is reconstructed and the $`B`$ flavor at decay is tagged with a novel charge dipole technique that relies heavily on the excellent resolution of the CCD pixel vertex detector. The $`B`$ flavor at production is tagged using the polarized electron beam as well as track and vertex information from the hemisphere opposite that of the $`B_s^0`$ candidate. With a final sample of $`\mathrm{11\hspace{0.17em}462}`$ decays, we achieve a sensitivity of 8.7 ps-1 and exclude the following values of the $`B_s^0`$ oscillation frequency: $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_s<4.9`$ ps-1 and $`7.9<\mathrm{\Delta }m_s<10.3`$ ps-1 at the 95% C.L.

Combining these results with those obtained from a sample of fully reconstructed $`D_s`$ mesons Dstracks  yields a combined SLD sensitivity of 11.1 ps-1 and excludes $`B_s^0`$ oscillation frequencies $`<10.7`$ ps-1 at the 95% C.L. This result confirms previous studies performed by the ALEPH, CDF, DELPHI, and OPAL Collaborations BOSCWG , and is among one of the most sensitive to date.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the personnel of the SLAC accelerator department and the technical staffs of our collaborating institutions for their outstanding efforts. This work was supported by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Instituto Nazionale di Fisica of Italy, the Japan-US Cooperative Research Project on High Energy Physics, and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom.