Measurement of the top quark mass at CDF using the "neutrino ø weighting" template method on a lepton plus isolated track sample
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 79:7 (2009)
Abstract:
We present a measurement of the top quark mass with tt̄ dilepton events produced in pp̄ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron (s=1.96TeV) and collected by the CDF II detector. A sample of 328 events with a charged electron or muon and an isolated track, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.9fb-1, are selected as tt̄ candidates. To account for the unconstrained event kinematics, we scan over the phase space of the azimuthal angles (ν1,ν2) of neutrinos and reconstruct the top quark mass for each ν1, ν2 pair by minimizing a χ2 function in the tt̄ dilepton hypothesis. We assign χ2-dependent weights to the solutions in order to build a preferred mass for each event. Preferred mass distributions (templates) are built from simulated tt̄ and background events, and parametrized in order to provide continuous probability density functions. A likelihood fit to the mass distribution in data as a weighted sum of signal and background probability density functions gives a top quark mass of 165.5-3.3+3.4(stat)±3. 1(syst)GeV/c2. © 2009 The American Physical Society.New measurement of exclusive decays of the χc0 and χc2 to two-meson final states
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 79:7 (2009)
Abstract:
Using a sample of 2.59×107 ψ(2S) decays collected by the CLEO-c detector, we present results of a study of χc0 and χc2 decays into two-meson final states. We present the world's most precise measurements of the χcJ,(J=0,2)→π+π-, π0π0, K+K-, KS0KS0, ηη, and η′η′ branching fractions, and a search for χc decays into ηη′. These results shed light on the mechanism of charmonium decays into pseudoscalar mesons. © 2009 The American Physical Society.Powerful jets from accreting black holes: Evidence from the optical and infrared
Chapter in Black Holes and Galaxy Formation, (2009) 295-320
Abstract:
A common consequence of accretion onto black holes is the formation of powerful, relativistic jets that escape the system. In the case of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies this has been known for decades, but for stellar-mass black holes residing within galaxies like our own, it has taken recent advances to arrive at this conclusion. Here, a review is given of the evidence that supports the existence of jets from accreting stellar-mass black holes, from observations made at optical and infrared wavelengths. In particular it is found that on occasion, jets can dominate the emission of these systems at these wavelengths. In addition, the interactions between the jets and the surrounding matter produce optical and infrared emission on large scales via thermal and non-thermal processes. The evidence, implications and applications in the context of jet physics are discussed. It is shown that many properties of the jets can be constrained from these studies, including the total kinetic power they contain. The main conclusion is that like the supermassive black holes, the jet kinetic power of accreting stellar-mass black holes is sometimes comparable to their bolometric radiative luminosity. Future studies can test ubiquities in jet properties between objects, and attempt to unify the properties of jets from all observable accreting black holes, i.e. of all masses. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.Top quark mass measurement in the lepton plus jets channel using a modified matrix element method
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology 79:7 (2009)
Abstract:
We report a measurement of the top quark mass, mt, obtained from pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron using the CDF II detector. We analyze a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9fb-1. We select events with an electron or muon, large missing transverse energy, and exactly four high-energy jets in the central region of the detector, at least one of which is tagged as coming from a b quark. We calculate a signal likelihood using a matrix element integration method, where the matrix element is modified by using effective propagators to take into account assumptions on event kinematics. Our event likelihood is a function of mt and a parameter JES (jet energy scale) that determines in situ the calibration of the jet energies. We use a neural network discriminant to distinguish signal from background events. We also apply a cut on the peak value of each event likelihood curve to reduce the contribution of background and badly reconstructed events. Using the 318 events that pass all selection criteria, we find mt=172.7±1.8(stat+JES) ±1.2(syst)GeV/c2. © 2009 The American Physical Society.Top quark mass measurement in the tt̄ all hadronic channel using a matrix element technique in pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV
Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology 79:7 (2009)