Study of the weak charged hadronic current in b decays

Charged and neutral particle multiplicities of jets associated with identified semileptonic and hadronic b decays are studied. The observed differences between these jets are used to determine the inclusive properties of the weak charged hadronic current. The average charged particle multiplicity of the weak charged hadronic current in b decays is measured for the first time to be 2.69±0.07(stat.)±0.14(syst.). This result is in good agreement with the JETSET hadronization model of the weak charged hadronic current if 40±17% of the produced mesons are light-flavored tensor (L=1) mesons. This level of tensor meson production is consistent with the measurement of the π0 multiplicity in the weak charged hadronic current in b decays.