The transverse momentum cross section of $e^+e^-$ pairs in the $Z$-boson mass region of 66-116 GeV/$c^2$ is precisely measured using Run II data corresponding to 2.1 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross section is compared with quantum chromodynamic calculations. One is a fixed-order perturbative calculation at ${\cal O}(\alpha_s^2)$, and the other combines perturbative predictions at high transverse momentum with the gluon resummation formalism at low transverse momentum. Comparisons of the measurement with calculations show reasonable agreement. The measurement is of sufficient precision to allow refinements in the understanding of the transverse momentum distribution.
We present an analysis of top-antitop quark production and decay into a tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark using data from $9 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Dilepton events, where one lepton is an energetic electron or muon and the other a hadronically-decaying tau lepton, originating from proton-antiproton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV$ are used. A top-antitop quark production cross section of $8.1 \pm 2.1 {\rm pb}$ is measured, assuming standard-model top-quark decays. By separately identifying for the first time the single-tau and the ditau components, we measure the branching fraction of the top quark into tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark to be $(9.6 \pm 2.8) %$. The branching fraction of top-quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark, which would imply violation of lepton universality, is limited to be less than $5.9%$ at $95%$ confidence level.
We present a measurement of the ZZ boson-pair production cross section in 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy ppbar collisions. We reconstruct final states incorporating four charged leptons or two charged leptons and two neutrinos from the full data set collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.7 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. Combining the results obtained from each final state, we measure a cross section of 1.04(+0.32)(-0.25) pb, in good agreement with the standard model prediction at next-to-leading order in the strong-interaction coupling.
The first search for single top quark production from the exchange of an $s$-channel virtual $W$ boson using events with an imbalance in the total transverse momentum, $b$-tagged jets, and no identified leptons is presented. The full data set collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45 fb$^{-1}$ from Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV, is used. Assuming the electroweak production of top quarks of mass 172.5 GeV/$c^2$ in the $s$-channel, a cross section of $1.12_{-0.57}^{+0.61}$ (stat+syst) pb, with a significance of 1.9 standard deviations, is measured. This measurement is combined with a previous result obtained from events with an imbalance in total transverse momentum, $b$-tagged jets, and exactly one identified lepton, yielding a cross section of $1.36_{-0.32}^{+0.37}$ (stat+syst) pb, with a significance of 4.2 standard deviations.
We report evidence for $s$-channel single-top-quark production in proton-antiproton collisions at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}= 1.96 \mathrm{TeV}$ using a data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $9.4 \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We select events consistent with the $s$-channel process including two jets and one leptonically decaying $W$ boson. The observed significance is $3.8$ standard deviations with respect to the background-only prediction. Assuming a top-quark mass of $172.5 \mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, we measure the $s$-channel cross section to be $1.41^{+0.44}_{-0.42} \mathrm{pb}$.
Drell-Yan lepton pairs are produced in the process $p\bar{p} \rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- + X$ through an intermediate $\gamma^*/Z$ boson. The forward-backward asymmetry in the polar-angle distribution of the $\mu^-$ as a function of the invariant mass of the $\mu^+\mu^-$ pair is used to obtain the effective leptonic determination $\sin^2 \theta^{lept}_{eff}$ of the electroweak-mixing parameter $\sin^2 \theta_W$, from which the value of $\sin^2 \theta_W$ is derived assuming the standard model. The measurement sample, recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), corresponds to 9.2 fb-1 of integrated luminosity from $p\bar{p}$ collisions at a center-of-momentum energy of 1.96 TeV, and is the full CDF Run II data set. The value of $\sin^2 \theta^{lept}_{eff}$ is found to be 0.2315 +- 0.0010, where statistical and systematic uncertainties are combined in quadrature. When interpreted within the context of the standard model using the on-shell renormalization scheme, where $\sin^2 \theta_W = 1 - M_W^2/M_Z^2$, the measurement yields $\sin^2 \theta_W$ = 0.2233 +- 0.0009, or equivalently a W-boson mass of 80.365 +- 0.047 GeV/c^2. The value of the W-boson mass is in agreement with previous determinations in electron-positron collisions and at the Tevatron collider.
We report a measurement of the single top quark production cross section in 2.2 ~fb-1 of p-pbar collision data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. Candidate events are classified as signal-like by three parallel analyses which use likelihood, matrix element, and neural network discriminants. These results are combined in order to improve the sensitivity. We observe a signal consistent with the standard model prediction, but inconsistent with the background-only model by 3.7 standard deviations with a median expected sensitivity of 4.9 standard deviations. We measure a cross section of 2.2 +0.7 -0.6(stat+sys) pb, extract the CKM matrix element value |V_{tb}|=0.88 +0.13 -0.12 (stat+sys) +- 0.07(theory), and set the limit |V_{tb}|>0.66 at the 95% C.L.
The first prompt photon measurement from the CDF experiment at the Fermilab pp¯ Collider is presented. Two independent methods are used to measure the cross section: one for high transverse momentum (PT) and one for lower PT. Comparisons to various theoretical calculations are shown. The cross section agrees qualitatively with QCD calculations but has a steeper slope at low PT.
The dijet invariant mass distribution has been measured in the region between 120 and 1000 GeV/c2, in 1.8-TeV pp¯ collisions. The data sample was collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). Data are compared to leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD calculations using two different clustering cone radii R in the jet definition. A quantitative test shows good agreement of data with the LO and NLO QCD predictions for a cone of R=1. The test using a cone of R=0.7 shows less agreement. The NLO calculation shows an improvement compared to LO in reproducing the shape of the spectrum for both radii, and approximately predicts the cone size dependence of the cross section.
We report measurements of the inclusive transverse momentum pT distribution of centrally produced kshort, kstar(892), and phi(1020) mesons up to pT = 10 GeV/c in minimum-bias events, and kshort and lambda particles up to pT = 20 GeV/c in jets with transverse energy between 25 GeV and 160 GeV in pbar p collisions. The data were taken with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. We find that as pT increases, the pT slopes of the three mesons (kshort, kstar, and phi) are similar, and the ratio of lambda to kshort as a function of pT in minimum-bias events becomes similar to the fairly constant ratio in jets at pT ~ 5 GeV/c. This suggests that the particles with pT >~ 5 GeV/c in minimum-bias events are from soft jets, and that the pT slope of particles in jets is insensitive to light quark flavor (u, d, or s) and to the number of valence quarks. We also find that for pT <~ 4 GeV relatively more lambda baryons are produced in minimum-bias events than in jets.