Observation of Single Top Quark Production

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.092001· OSTI ID:948881

Abazov, V M; Abbott, B; Abolins, M; Acharya, Bannanje Sripath; Adams, M; Adams, T; Aguilo, E; Ahsan, M; Alexeev, G D; Alkhazov, Georgiy D; Alton, Andrew K

We report first observation of the electroweak production of single top quarks in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV based on 2.3 fb{sup ?1} of data collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Using events containing an isolated electron or muon and missing transverse energy, together with jets originating from the fragmentation of b quarks, we measure a cross section of {sigma}(p{bar p} {yields} tb + X, tqb + X) = 3.94 {+-} 0.88 pb. The probability to measure a cross section at this value or higher in the absence of signal is 2.5 x 10{sup ?7}, corresponding to a 5.0 standard deviation significance for the observation.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 948881
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-09-056-E; arXiv eprint number arXiv:0903.0850
• Journal Information: Submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett., Journal Name: Submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
B QUARKS
CROSS SECTIONS
ELECTRONS
Experiment-HEP
FERMILAB TEVATRON
FRAGMENTATION
MUONS
PROBABILITY
PRODUCTION
T QUARKS
TRANSVERSE ENERGY