Measurement of the Top Quark Pair Production Cross Section in p anti-p collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the measurement of the rate at which a top-antitop quark pair is produced in pp collisions at a center of mass energy of ps = 1:96 TeV. The data are collected with the D detector, a multi-purpose detector operating at the Fermilab Tevatron collider during Run II. A measurement of the top quark pair (t$\bar{t}$) production cross section ( σt$\bar{t}$) in p$\bar{p}$ collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV is presented. The measurement is based on data recorded by the D0 Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, and preselected in the e+jets (366 pb-1) and μ+jets (363 pb-1) channels. The cross section is extracted by applying a lifetime-tagging technique to the data, and yields σt$\bar{t}$ = 6.96$+1.07\atop{-0.98}$(stat + syst) ± 0.45(lumi) pb; for a top quark mass mt =175 GeV, in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction.