We present a measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in the production of $B^{ \pm}$ mesons, $A_{ \rm FB}(B^{ \pm})$, using $B^{ \pm} \rightarrow J/\psi K^{ \pm}$ decays in 10.4 ${ \rm fb}^{ -1}$ of $p\bar{ p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{ s} = 1.96$ TeV collected by the D0 experiment during Run II of the Tevatron collider. A nonzero asymmetry would indicate a preference for a particular flavor, i.e., $b$ quark or $\bar{ b}$ antiquark, to be produced in the direction of the proton beam. We extract $A_{ \rm FB}(B^{ \pm})$ from a maximum likelihood fit to the difference between forward- and backward-produced $B^{ \pm}$ mesons. We measure an asymmetry consistent with zero: $A_{ \rm FB}(B^{ \pm})$ = [$-$0.24 $\pm$ 0.41 (stat) $\pm$ 0.19 (syst)]%.
Categories: hep-ex