Measurement of the B-0 meson lifetime with partial reconstruction of B-0 -> D*(-)pi(+) and B-0 -> D*(-)rho(+) decays

The neutral B meson lifetime is measured with the data collected by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage ring during the years 1999 and 2000, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.7 fb(-1). The decays B-0 --> D*- pi(+) and B-0 --> D*- rho(+) are selected with a partial-reconstruction technique, yielding samples of 6970 6240 and 55206250 signal events, respectively. With these events, the B-0 lifetime is measured to be 1.533 +/-0.034 (stat) +/-0.038 (syst) ps. This measurement serves as a test and validation of procedures required to measure the CP violation parameter sin(2beta+gamma) with partial reconstruction of these modes.