Z0 Boson Measurement with the ALICE Central Barrel in pp collisions at 14 TeV

TL;DR

This paper investigates the feasibility of detecting Z0 bosons in proton-proton collisions at 14 TeV using the ALICE detector's central barrel, focusing on the electron decay channel and background suppression techniques.

Contribution

It presents a detailed simulation study of Z0 detection prospects in ALICE at 14 TeV, including electron identification and background reduction strategies.

Findings

Clear Z0 signal achievable with isolation and momentum cuts.

Background contamination estimated at around 1%.

Expected Z0 yields calculated for 14 TeV collisions.

Abstract

The possibility to detect the Z0 in the ALICE central barrel is studied via the electronic decay channel Z0->e+e-. The signal and the background are simulated with the leading order event generator PYTHIA 6. The total cross-sections are taken from NLO calculations. Based on test beam data, the electron identification performance of the Transition Radiation Detector is extrapolated to high momenta. The expected yields for minimum-bias pp collisions at 14 TeV are presented. An isolation cut on the single electron, together with a minimum transverse momentum cut, allows to obtain a clear signal. The expected background is of the order of 1 % with the main contribution coming from misidentified pions from jets.