Measurement of single top production in the tW-channel and search for s-channel in pp collisions

Abstract

Measurements of single top quark production in the tW and s channels in pp collisions are presented, based on data collected in 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. In the tW channel a top quark is produced in association with a W boson. The experimental signature is similar to top pair production, and there is interference at higher orders between the two processes. The measurement is perfomed using final states in which the associated W boson as well as the one originating from the top quark decay leptonically. Multivariate methods are used to extract the cross section and the result is compared with current standard model theory predictions. Multivariatetechniques are also adopted in the search for s-channel single top quark production inorder to discriminate the very small signal from the huge contribution of background processes. In both analyses the signal contribution is determined together with the background estimation by performing a maximum-likelihood fit to the Boosted Decision Trees discriminants in signal and background enriched phase space regions. Presented at EPS-HEP 2015 European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics 2015 Measurement of single top production in the tW channel and search for s channel in pp collisions Mario Merola∗ for the CMS Collaboration INFN, Napoli (IT) E-mail: mario.merola@cern.ch Measurements of single top quark production in the tW and s channels in pp collisions are presented, based on data collected in 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. In the tW channel a top quark is produced in association with a W boson. The experimental signature is similar to top pair production, and there is interference at higher orders between the two processes. The measurement is perfomed using final states in which the associated W boson as well as the one originating from the top quark decay leptonically. Multivariate methods are used to extract the cross section and the result is compared with current standard model theory predictions. Multivariate techniques are also adopted in the search for s-channel single top quark production in order to discriminate the very small signal from the huge contribution of background processes. In both analyses the signal contribution is determined together with the background estimation by performing a maximum-likelihood fit to the Boosted Decision Trees discriminants in signal and background enriched phase space regions. The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics 22-29 July 2015 Vienna, Austria