Measurements of s(V+D*)/s(V) in 9.7 fb-1 at CDF Run II

The Standard Model of particle physics has been remarkably successful, but the non-perturbative features of quantum chromodynamics must be tested and modeled with data. There have been many such tests, focused primarily on the use of jet-based probes of heavy flavor (bottom and charm quark) production at hadron colliders. In this thesis, we propose and test a strategy for identifying heavy flavor in events containing a W or Z vector boson (a V boson); this technique probes a much lower energy regime than can be explored by jet-based methods. In a sample of W and Z events skimmed from 9.7 fb-1 of high-pT electron and muon data from CDF Run II ppbar collisions at center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.96 GeV, we identify charm by fully reconstructing D*(2010)->D0(Kp)p_s decays at the track level. Using a binned fit of Dm=m(Kpp_s)-m(Kp) to count reconstructed D* candidates, we then unfold these raw counts with acceptance values derived from Monte Carlo, and present measurements of s(W+D*)/s(W) and s(Z+D*)/s(Z) in the W/Z leptonic decay channels. All measurements are found to be in agreement with the predictions of Pythia 6.2 (PDF set CTEQ5L). These results include the first measurement of W/Z+c production in events with zero jet objects at the Tevatron, and the first measurement of W/Z+c production with pT(c) < 15 GeV at the Tevatron.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Matera, Keith

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pitts, Kevin T.
• Neubauer, Mark S.
• Willenbrock, Scott S.
• Mason, Nadya

• W
• Z
• vector
• bosons
• D*
• charm
• Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF)
• Collider
• Detector
• Fermilab

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 by Keith Matera

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50734

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50734