First Run II Measurement of the W Boson Mass

TL;DR

This paper reports the most precise measurement to date of the W boson mass using proton-antiproton collision data, which refines constraints on electroweak parameters and potential new particles.

Contribution

First Run II measurement of the W boson mass with unprecedented precision, utilizing a large dataset from the CDF II detector.

Findings

Measured mW = 80.413 ± 0.048 GeV/c^2

Improves constraints on electroweak parameters

Refines limits on unobserved particles coupling to W and Z bosons

Abstract

We describe a measurement of the W boson mass mW using 200/pb of root-s = 1.96 TeV p-pbar collision data taken with the CDF II detector. With a sample of 63,964 W -> e nu candidates and 51,128 W -> mu nu candidates, we measure mW = [80.413 +- 0.034 (stat) +- 0.034 (sys) = 80.413 +- 0.048] GeV/c^2. This is the single most precise mW measurement to date. When combined with other measured electroweak parameters, this result further constrains the properties of unobserved particles coupling to W and Z bosons.