Search for ZZ and ZW Production in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This paper searches for ZZ and ZW boson pair production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, setting upper limits on their combined production cross section based on leptonic decay channels.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental upper limit on ZZ and ZW production cross section at this energy in leptonic decay modes.

Findings

Observed 3 candidate events with expected background of 1.0 events.

Set a 95% CL upper limit of 15.2 pb on ZZ+ZW production cross section.

Standard model prediction for combined ZZ and ZW production is 5.0 +/- 0.4 pb.

Abstract

We present a search for ZZ and ZW vector boson pair production in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV using the leptonic decay channels ZZ --> ll nu nu, ZZ --> l l l' l' and ZW --> l l l' nu. In a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 194 pb-1 collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab, 3 candidate events are found with an expected background of 1.0 +/- 0.2 events. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of 15.2 pb on the cross section for ZZ plus ZW production, compared to the standard model prediction of 5.0 +/- 0.4 pb.