Inclusive production of the ρ±(770) meson in hadronic decays of the Z boson

The inclusive production rate of the ρ±(770) vector meson in hadronic Z decays is measured with the ALEPH detector at the LEP collider. A total of 3.2 million hadronic events are selected from data recorded between 1991 and 1995. Decays of ρ±→π0+π± are reconstructed for xE>0.05 and xp>0.05 where xp=pρ/pbeam and xE=Eρ/Ebeam. The average ρ± multiplicity per hadronic event is evaluated to be N(ρ±)=2.59±0.03±0.15±0.04 where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. The third error is from the uncertainty in the extrapolation to xp=xE=0. The rates and differential cross-section are compared with Monte Carlo model predictions and OPAL measurements. Residual Bose-Einstein correlations are found to be an important component in the analysis.