A MEASUREMENT OF THE INCLUSIVE BRANCHING RATIO OF CHARGED AND NEUTRAL D MESON DECAYS CONTAINING A NEUTRINO

Abstract

This thesis reports the measurement of branching ratios for the inclusive decay of a D meson to a neutrino, measured at the CLEO-c detector. It is fully inclusive as to lepton flavor and into which semileptonic mode the D decays. This analysis is the first direct measurement of the inclusive neutrino branching ratio. It utilizes 187 $pb^{-1}$ of data taken at the $\psiprime$ resonance. The measured values are $BR(D^{\pm} \rightarrow X\nu) = 29.43\% \pm 0.83 \pm 1.75$, and $BR(D^0 \rightarrow X\nu) = 13.52\% \pm 0.28 \pm 0.68$.