Cross Section Measurements of High-$p_T$ Dilepton Final-State Processes Using a Global Fitting Method

TL;DR

This paper introduces a global fitting method to measure cross sections of high-$p_T$ dilepton processes, providing simultaneous estimates for top pair, W pair, and Z to tau tau production at Tevatron energies.

Contribution

A novel likelihood fitting approach that extracts multiple process cross sections from dilepton data in a unified analysis.

Findings

Measured $\sigma(tar{t})$ as 8.5 pb with uncertainties

Determined $\sigma(W^+W^-)$ as 16.3 pb with uncertainties

Estimated $\sigma( ext{Z} o au au)$ as 291 pb with uncertainties

Abstract

We present a new method for studying high-$p_T$ dilepton events ($e^{\pm}e^{\mp}$, $\mu^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$, $e^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$) and simultaneously extracting the production cross sections of $p\bar{p} \to t\bar{t}$, $p\bar{p} \to W^+W^-$, and $p\bar{p} \to \ztt$ at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV. We perform a likelihood fit to the dilepton data in a parameter space defined by the missing transverse energy and the number of jets in the event. Our results, which use $360 {\rm pb^{-1}}$ of data recorded with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, are $\sigma(t\bar{t}) = 8.5_{-2.2}^{+2.7}$ pb, $\sigma(W^+W^-) = 16.3^{+5.2}_{-4.4}$ pb, and $\sigma(\ztt) =291^{+50}_{-46}$ pb.