Dr. Karolos Potamianos

Abstract:

We search for annihilation decay modes of neutral b mesons into pairs of charmless charged hadrons with the upgraded Collider Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Using a data sample corresponding to 6fb-1 of integrated luminosity, we obtain the first evidence for the Bs0→π+π - decay, with a significance of 3.7σ, and a measured branching ratio B(Bs0→π+π-)=(0.57±0.15(stat) ±0.10(syst))×10-6. A search for the B0→K +K- mode in the same sample yields a significance of 2.0σ, and a central value estimate B(B0→K+K -)=(0.23±0.10(stat)±0.10(syst))×10-6. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We present a search for a new heavy particle X produced in association with a top quark, pp̄→t(X→t̄q) or pp̄→t̄(X̄ →tq̄), where q stands for up quarks and down quarks. Such a particle may explain the recent anomalous measurements of top-quark forward-backward asymmetry. If the light-flavor quark (q) is reconstructed as a jet (j), this gives a t̄+j or t+j resonance in tt̄+jet events, a previously unexplored experimental signature. In a sample of events with exactly one lepton, missing transverse momentum and at least five jets, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7fb-1 collected by the CDF II detector, we find the data to be consistent with the standard model. We set cross-section upper limits on the production (pp̄→Xt or X̄t̄) at 95% confidence level from 0.61 pb to 0.02 pb for X masses ranging from 200GeV/c2 to 800GeV/c2, respectively. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

The production of invisible particles plays great importance in high energy physics. Large part of interesting electroweak processes include production of neutrinos, while many new physics scenarios predict the existence of similarly weakly-interacting particles. In events with associated production of invisible particles and hadronic jets, the measurement of the imbalance in transverse momentum of the final state particles is the major leverage to reject the otherwise dominant source of backgrounds in hadron colliders, i.e. the generic production of many jets by QCD interactions. Here we discuss a novel technique which utilizes the information derived from the spectrometer, eventually coupled with the more straightforward calorimeter information, to infer the passage of invisible particles. We check the validity of this technique in data and Monte Carlo simulations in a broad range of topologies, starting from the simplest, with two jets in the final state, to the ones with very large jet multiplicities. We also suggest a new way, based on the same approach, to measure the yields and model the kinematics of the QCD multijet background in invisible particles plus jets signatures. The results are derived using data collected with the CDF II detector; we argue that the application to LHC experiments is straightforward.

Abstract:

Using data from pp̄ collisions at √s=1.96TeV recorded by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron, we present improved measurements of the masses and first measurements of natural widths of the four bottom baryon resonance states Σb+, Σb*+ and Σb-, Σb*-. These states are fully reconstructed in their decay modes to Λb0π ± where Λb0→Λc+π - with Λc+→pK -π +. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.0fb -1 collected by an online event selection based on tracks displaced from the pp̄ interaction point. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

A study of the substructure of jets with transverse momentum greater than 400GeV/c produced in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider and recorded by the CDF II detector is presented. The distributions of the jet mass, angularity, and planar flow are measured for the first time in a sample with an integrated luminosity of 5.95fb -1. The observed substructure for high mass jets is consistent with predictions from perturbative quantum chromodynamics. © 2012 American Physical Society.