Search for Resonant Top-antitop Production in the Semi-leptonic Decay Mode Using the Full CDF Data Set

TL;DR

This study searches for a hypothetical narrow resonance decaying into top-antitop pairs using the full CDF dataset, setting limits on new particle production and excluding certain Z' boson masses.

Contribution

First comprehensive search for narrow top-antitop resonances in semi-leptonic decay mode using the full Tevatron data set, providing the most sensitive limits below 750 GeV/c^2.

Findings

No evidence for resonant production was observed.

Excluded Z' bosons with masses below 915 GeV/c^2 at 95% credibility.

Set upper limits on production cross section times branching ratio.

Abstract

This Letter reports a search for a narrow resonant state decaying into two $W$ bosons and a bottom-antibottom quark pair where one $W$ boson decays leptonically and the other decays into a quark-antiquark pair. The search is particularly sensitive to top-antitop resonant production. We use the full data sample of proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence for resonant production is found and upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio for a narrow resonant state are extracted. Within a specific benchmark model, we exclude a $Z'$ boson with mass below 915 GeV/$c^2$ decaying into a top-antitop pair at the 95% credibility level assuming a $Z'$ boson decay width of $\Gamma_{Z'} = 0.012 M_{Z'}$. This is the most sensitive search for a narrow $\ensuremath{q\bar{q}}$-initiated $\ensuremath{t\bar{t}}$ resonance in the mass region below 750 GeV/$c^2$.