Search for Single-Top-Quark Production at the Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper reports on searches for single-top-quark production at the Tevatron, setting upper limits on production cross sections and mass limits for hypothetical W' bosons, with no significant signals observed.

Contribution

It provides the first combined limits on single-top production cross sections and W' boson masses from Tevatron data.

Findings

No evidence for single-top-quark production was observed.

Upper limits on the cross section are set at 2.9 pb (t-channel) and 3.2 pb (s-channel).

Mass limits for W' bosons are established at 610 GeV/c^2 (left-handed) and 630 GeV/c^2 (right-handed).

Abstract

This article reports on recent searches for single-top-quark production by the CDF and DO collaborations at the Tevatron. Neither two CDF analyses, using data corresponding to 695 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity, nor a DO search based on 370 pb^-1 of data can establish a signal for this standard model process. These null results translate in upper limits on the cross section of 2.9 pb for the t-channel production mode and 3.2 pb for the s-channel mode at the 95% C.L. In addition, the DO collaboration has searched for non-standard model production of single-top-quarks via a heavy W^prime boson. No signal of this process is found resulting in lower mass limits of 610 GeV/c^2 for a left-handed W^prime and 630 GeV/c^2 for a right-handed W^\prime boson.