Inclusive analysis of the b quark fragmentation function in Z decays at LEP

A study of \(\mathrm{b}\) quark hadronisation is presented using inclusively reconstructed B hadrons in about four million hadronic Z decays recorded in 1992-2000 with the OPAL detector at LEP. The data are compared to different theoretical models, and fragmentation function parameters of these models are fitted. The average scaled energy of weakly decaying B hadrons is determined to be \[\langle{x}_{ \mathrm{E}}\rangle = 0.7193 \pm 0.0016 (stat)^{+0.0038}_{-0.0033}(syst) \ . \]