Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

We present a measurement of the isolated direct photon cross section in [Formula Presented] collisions at [Formula Presented] and [Formula Presented] using data collected between 1994 and 1995 by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). The measurement is based on events where the photon converts into an electron-positron pair in the material of the inner detector, resulting in a two track event signature. To remove [Formula Presented] and [Formula Presented] events from the data we use a new background subtraction technique which takes advantage of the tracking information available in a photon conversion event. We find that the shape of the cross section as a function of photon [Formula Presented] is poorly described by next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, but agrees with previous CDF measurements. © 2004 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We present a detailed examination of the heavy flavor properties of jets produced at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data set, collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab, consists of events with two or more jets with transverse energy ET≥15 GeV and pseudorapidity |η|≤1.5. The heavy flavor content of the data set is enriched by requiring that at least one of the jets (lepton-jet) contains a lepton with a transverse momentum larger than 8 GeV/c. Jets containing hadrons with heavy flavor are selected via the identification of secondary vertices. The parton-level cross sections predicted by the HERWIG Monte Carlo generator program are tuned within theoretical and experimental uncertainties to reproduce the secondary-vertex rates in the data. The tuned simulation provides new information on the origin of the discrepancy between the bb̄ cross section measurements at the Tevatron and the next-to-leading order QCD prediction. We also compare the rate of away-jets (jets recoiling against the lepton-jet) containing a soft lepton (p T≥2 GeV/c) in the data to that in the tuned simulation. We find that this rate is larger than what is expected for the conventional production and semileptonic decay of pairs of hadrons with heavy flavor. © 2004 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We have measured the number of like-sign (LS) and opposite-sign (OS) lepton pairs arising from double semileptonic decays of b and [Formula Presented] hadrons, pair produced at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data samples were collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during the 1992–1995 collider run by triggering on the existence of [Formula Presented] or [Formula Presented] candidates in an event. The observed ratio of LS to OS dileptons leads to a measurement of the average time-integrated mixing probability of all produced b-flavored hadrons which decay weakly, [Formula Presented] that is significantly larger than the world average [Formula Presented] © 2004 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

Charge collection measurements performed on heavily irradiated p-spray dofz pixel sensors with a grazing angle hadron beam provide a sensitive determination of the electric field within the detectors. The data are compared with a complete charge transport simulation of the sensor which includes signal trapping and charge induction effects. A linearly varying electric field based upon the standard picture of a constant type-inverted effective doping density is inconsistent with the data. A two-trap double junction model implemented in ISE TCAD software can be tuned to produce a doubly-peaked electric field which describes the data reasonably well at two different fluences. The modeled field differs somewhat from previous determinations based upon the transient current technique. The model can also account for the level of signal trapping observed in the data. © 2004 IEEE.

Abstract:

For comparison of inclusive jet cross sections measured at hadron-hadron colliders to next-to-leading order (NLO) parton-level calculations, the energy deposited in the jet cone by spectator parton interactions must first be subtracted. The assumption made at the Tevatron is that the spectator parton interaction energy is similar to the ambient level measured in minimum bias events. In this paper, we test this assumption by measuring the ambient charged track momentum in events containing large transverse energy jets at [Formula Presented] and [Formula Presented] and comparing this ambient momentum with that observed both in minimum bias events and with that predicted by two Monte Carlo models. Two cones in [Formula Presented] space are defined, at the same pseudorapidity, [Formula Presented], as the jet with the highest transverse energy ([Formula Presented]), and at [Formula Presented] in the azimuthal direction, [Formula Presented]. The total charged track momentum inside each of the two cones is measured. The minimum momentum in the two cones is almost independent of [Formula Presented] and is similar to the momentum observed in minimum bias events, whereas the maximum momentum increases roughly linearly with the jet [Formula Presented] over most of the measured range. This study was carried out using data from the CDF detector taken during Run 1 (1994-1995). The study will help improve the precision of comparisons of jet cross section data and NLO perturbative QCD predictions. The distribution of the sum of the track momenta in the two cones is also examined for five different [Formula Presented] bins. The HERWIG and PYTHIA Monte Carlo generators are reasonably successful in describing the data, but neither can describe completely all of the event properties. © 2004 The American Physical Society.