Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

A measurement of the tt̄ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV has been performed at the LHC with the CMS detector. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1and is based on the reconstruction of the final state with one isolated, high transverse-momentum electron or muon and three or more hadronic jets. The kinematic properties of the events are used to separate the tt̄ signal from W+jets and QCD multijet background events. The measured cross section is 173+39-32(stat. + syst.) pb, consistent with standard model expectations. © 2011 CERN for the benefit of the CMS collaboration.

Abstract:

We report on a search for anomalous production of Z boson pairs through a massive resonance decay in data corresponding to 2.5-2.9fb-1 of integrated luminosity in pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV using the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. This analysis, with more data and channels where the Z bosons decay to muons or jets, supersedes the 1.1fb-1 four-electron channel result previously published by CDF. In order to maintain high efficiency for muons, we use a new forward tracking algorithm and muon identification requirements optimized for these high signal-to-background channels. Predicting the dominant backgrounds in each channel entirely from sideband data samples, we observe four-body invariant mass spectra above 300GeV/c2 that are consistent with background. We set limits using the acceptance for a massive graviton resonance that are 7-20 times stronger than the previously published direct limits on resonant ZZ diboson production. © 2011 American Physical Society.