Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

A measurement of the top-quark mass is presented using Tevatron data from proton-antiproton collisions at center-of-mass energy √s=1.96TeV collected with the CDF II detector. Events are selected from a sample of candidates for production of tt̄ pairs that decay into the lepton+jets channel. The top-quark mass is measured with an unbinned maximum likelihood method where the event probability density functions are calculated using signal and background matrix elements, as well as a set of parametrized jet-to-parton transfer functions. The likelihood function is maximized with respect to the top-quark mass, the signal fraction in the sample, and a correction to the jet energy scale (JES) calibration of the calorimeter jets. The simultaneous measurement of the JES correction (ΔJES) amounts to an additional in situ jet energy calibration based on the known mass of the hadronically decaying W boson. Using the data sample of 578 lepton+jets candidate events, corresponding to 3.2fb-1 of integrated luminosity, the top-quark mass is measured to be mt=172.4±1.4(stat+ΔJES)±1. 3(syst)GeV/c2. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

This paper reports a search for nonstandard model topquark resonances, Z′, decaying to tt̄→W+bW -b̄, where both W decay to quarks. We examine the top-antitop quark invariant mass spectrum for the presence of narrow resonant states. The search uses a data sample of pp̄ collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron, with an integrated luminosity of 2.8fb-1. No evidence for top-antitop quark resonant production is found. We place upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio for a specific topcolor assisted technicolor model in which the Z′ has a width of Γ Z′=0.012MZ′. Within this model, we exclude a Z′ boson with masses below 805GeV/c2 at the 95% confidence level. © 2011 American Physical Society.