Measurement of the WW production cross section in p anti-p collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise measurement of the W boson pair-production cross section in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, confirming the Standard Model predictions with high statistical significance.

Contribution

First measurement of WW production cross section at Tevatron energy with detailed background analysis and statistical significance.

Findings

Observed 25 candidate events with expected background of 8.1 events.

Measured cross section of 13.8 pb with uncertainties, consistent with Standard Model.

Achieved a 5.2 sigma significance for the WW signal.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the W boson pair-production cross section in p anti-p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. The data, collected with the Run II DO detector, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 224-252 pb^-1 depending on the final state (ee, emu or mumu). We observe 25 candidates with a background expectation of 8.1+/-0.6(stat)+/-0.6(syst)+/-0.5(lum) events. The probability for an upward fluctuation of the background to produce the observed signal is 2.3x10^-7, equivalent to 5.2 standard deviations.The measurement yields a cross section of 13.8+4.3/-3.8(stat)+1.2/-0.9(syst)+/-0.9(lum) pb, in agreement with predictions from the standard model.