Search for a W' Boson Decaying to a Top and Bottom Quark Pair in 1.8 TeV p-pbar Collisions

TL;DR

This study searches for a hypothetical W' boson decaying into top and bottom quarks in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV, setting mass exclusion limits based on the absence of observed signals.

Contribution

First search for W' boson decaying to top and bottom quarks at Tevatron energies, establishing mass exclusion limits in specific theoretical models.

Findings

No significant excess observed above background.

Excluded W' boson masses between 225 and 536 GeV/c² at 95% CL.

Set limits on W' production rate and decay in the studied model.

Abstract

We report the results of a search for a W' boson produced in p-pbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV using a 106 pb-1 data sample recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We observe no significant excess of events above background for a W' boson decaying to a top and bottom quark pair, with the top quark subsequently decaying into a semileptonic final state. These data allow us to set limits on the rate of W' boson production and decay. In a model where this boson would mediate interactions involving a massive right-handed neutrino (nu_R) and has Standard Model strength couplings, we exclude a W' boson with mass between 225 and 536 GeV/c**2 at 95% confidence level for M_W' >> M_nu_R and between 225 and 566 GeV/c**2 at 95% confidence level for M_W' < M_nu_R.