Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

We present a search for a standard model Higgs boson decaying to two $W$ bosons that decay to leptons using the full data set collected with the CDF II detector in $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV $p\bar{p}$ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 fb${}^{-1}$. We obtain no evidence for production of a standard model Higgs boson with mass between 110 and 200 GeV/$c^2$, and place upper limits on the production cross section within this range. We exclude standard model Higgs boson production at the 95% confidence level in the mass range between 149 and 172 GeV/$c^2$, while expecting to exclude, in the absence of signal, the range between 155 and 175 GeV/$c^2$. We also interpret the search in terms of standard model Higgs boson production in the presence of a fourth generation of fermions and within the context of a fermiophobic Higgs boson model. For the specific case of a standard model-like Higgs boson in the presence of fourth-generation fermions, we exclude at the 95% confidence level Higgs boson production in the mass range between 124 and 200 GeV/$c^2$, while expecting to exclude, in the absence of signal, the range between 124 and 221 GeV/$c^2$.

Abstract:

We present a search for chargino-neutralino associated production using like electric charge dilepton events collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron in proton-antiproton collisions at √s=1.96 TeV. One lepton is identified as the hadronic decay of a tau lepton, while the other is an electron or muon. In data corresponding to 6.0 fb-1 of integrated luminosity, we obtain good agreement with standard model predictions and set limits on the chargino-neutralino production cross section for simplified gravity- and gauge-mediated models. As an example, assuming that the chargino and neutralino decays to taus dominate, in the simplified gauge-mediated model we exclude cross sections greater than 300 fb at 95% credibility level for chargino and neutralino masses of 225 GeV/c2. This analysis is the first to extend the LHC searches for electroweak supersymmetric production of gauginos to high tanâ¡β and slepton next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle scenarios. © 2013 American Physical Society.