Evidence for Top Quark Production in pp Collisions at √s=1.8 TeV

Original · EN

We summarize a search for the top quark with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) in a sample of pp collisions at √s= 1.8 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 19.3 pb⁻¹. We find 12 events consistent with either two W bosons, or a W boson and at least one b jet. The probability that the measured yield is consistent with the background is 0.26%. Though the statistics are too limited to establish firmly the existence of the top quark, a natural interpretation of the excess is that it is due to tt production. Under this assumption, constrained fits to individual events yield a top quark mass of 174 ± 10⁺¹³₋₁₂ GeV/c². The tt production cross section is measured to be 13.9⁺⁶.¹₋₄.₈ pb. (Submitted to Physical Review Letters on May 16, 1994).