Measurement of the W-boson helicity fractions in top-quark decays at CDF
Abstract
Description
We present a measurement of the fractions F_0 and F_+ of longitudinally polarized and right-handed W bosons in top-quark decays using data collected with the CDF II detector. The data set used in the analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 955 pb-1. We select top-antitop candidate events with one lepton, at least four jets, and missing transverse energy. Our helicity measurement uses the decay angle theta*, which is defined as the angle between the momentum of the charged lepton in the W boson rest-frame and the W momentum in the top-quark rest-frame. The cos(theta*) distribution in the data is determined by full kinematic reconstruction of the top-antotop candidates. We find F_0 = 0.59 +- 0.12 (stat) +0.07 -0.06 (syst) and F_+ = -0.03 +- 0.06 (stat) +0.04 -0.03 (syst), which is consistent with the standard model prediction. We set an upper limit on the fraction of right-handed W-bosons of F_+ < 0.1 at the 95% confidence level.
For the Proceedings of the 42nd Rencontres de Moriond 2007, Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories
For the Proceedings of the 42nd Rencontres de Moriond 2007, Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories