Measurements of the Ratio of W and Z Production and the W Boson Decay Width at CDF

Abstract

We present a new method of measuring the ratio of W and Z production and de- cay (R) at the CDF experiment. We analyze 307 pb-1 of proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. A single sample containing both W and Z boson candidates is selected by requiring at least one high-energy electron in an event with low hadronic activity. We estimate that less than one percent of our sample is made up of background events after a cut on the recoil energy. A maximum likelihood fits is performed on the missing transverse energy spectrum of the events to determine the relative rates of W and Z production in the common sample. This ratio is defined as: R = Z · → Z Γ(W → £ν) 1 Γ(W ) Br(Z → ££) We have obtained the fi result using this method for the electron channel. R = 10.55 ± 0.09(stat) ± 0.12(syst) We then extract the Branching Ratio of W → £ν using the Branching Ratio of Z → £+£- measured at LEP and a theoretical value for the ratio of the cross sections. σZ Br(W → £ν) = R · W Br(Z → £+ £-) = 0.1054 ± 0.0016 We also obtain an indirect measurement of the W width of Γtot = 2148 ± 32 MeV. This width gives us information about all the possible decays of the W boson. The W width also constrains the sum of the CKM elements involved in W decays. We find the following value for Vcs , the least constrained element: |Vcs | = 1.008 ± 0.029.

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