Accelerator Neutrinos

Abstract:

A first measurement is reported of the longitudinal proton structure function F L (x, Q 2) at the ep collider HERA. It is based on inclusive deep inelastic e + p scattering cross section measurements with a positron beam energy of 27.5   GeV and proton beam energies of 920, 575 and 460   GeV. Employing the energy dependence of the cross section, F L is measured in a range of squared four-momentum transfers 12 ≤ Q 2 ≤ 90   GeV 2 and low Bjorken x 0.00024 ≤ x ≤ 0.0036. The F L values agree with higher order QCD calculations based on parton densities obtained using cross section data previously measured at HERA. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We present first evidence for the production of single top quarks in the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp̄ collider. The standard model predicts that the electroweak interaction can produce a top quark together with an antibottom quark or light quark, without the antiparticle top-quark partner that is always produced from strong-coupling processes. Top quarks were first observed in pair production in 1995, and since then, single top-quark production has been searched for in ever larger data sets. In this analysis, we select events from a 0.9fb-1 data set that have an electron or muon and missing transverse energy from the decay of a W boson from the top-quark decay, and two, three, or four jets, with one or two of the jets identified as originating from a b hadron decay. The selected events are mostly backgrounds such as W+jets and tt̄ events, which we separate from the expected signals using three multivariate analysis techniques: boosted decision trees, Bayesian neural networks, and matrix-element calculations. A binned likelihood fit of the signal cross section plus background to the data from the combination of the results from the three analysis methods gives a cross section for single top-quark production of σ(pp̄→tb+X,tqb+X)=4.7±1.3pb. The probability to measure a cross section at this value or higher in the absence of signal is 0.014%, corresponding to a 3.6 standard deviation significance. The measured cross section value is compatible at the 10% level with the standard model prediction for electroweak top-quark production. We use the cross section measurement to directly determine the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix element that describes the Wtb coupling and find |Vtbf1L|=1.31-0.21+0.25, where f1L is a generic vector coupling. This model-independent measurement translates into 0.68<|Vtb|≤1 at the 95% C.L. in the standard model. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

Data collected in run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for indications of new electroweak scale physics. Rather than focusing on particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with respect to the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers the gross features of the data and is sensitive to new large cross section physics. A quasi-model-independent approach (Sleuth) searches for a significant excess of events with large summed transverse momentum and is particularly sensitive to new electroweak scale physics that appears predominantly in one final state. This global search for new physics in over 300 exclusive final states in 927pb-1 of pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV reveals no such significant indication of physics beyond the standard model. © 2008 The American Physical Society.