Study of direct photon production with heavy flavor jets in $p\overline{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV with DZero detector

Abstract

In hadronic collisions, photons ($\gamma$) with high energies emerge unaltered from the hard parton-parton interaction and therefore provide a clean probe of the underlying hard-scattering dynamics. Photons produced in these interactions (called direct or prompt) in association with one or more bottom ($b$)-quark jets provide an important test of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) predictions at large hard-scattering scales $Q$ and over a wide range of parton momentum fractions. In addition, the study of these processes also provides information about the parton density functions of $b$ quarks and gluons ($g$), which still have substantial uncertainties. In $p\bar{p}$ collisions, \gb-jet events are produced primarily through the Compton process $gb\to \gamma b$, which dominates for low and moderate photon transverse momenta ($\Ptg$), and through quark-antiquark anni hilation followed by $g \to b\bar{b}$ gluon splitting $q\bar{q}\to \gamma g \to \gamma b\bar{b}$, which dominates at high $\Ptg$. The final state with $b$-quark pair production, $p\bar{p} \rightarrow \gamma+b\bar{b}$, is mainly produced via $q\bar{q}\to \gamma b\bar{b}$ and $gg\to \gamma b\bar{b}$ scatterings. The $\gamma+2~b$-jet process is a crucial component of background in measurements of, for example, $t\bar{t} \gamma$ coupling and in some searches for new phenomena. This thesis presents the first measurements of the differential cross section ${\rm d}\sigma/{\rm d}\Ptg$ for the production of an isolated photon in association with at least two $b$-quark The ratio of differential production cross sections for $\gamma+2~b$-jets to $\gamma+b$-jet as a function of \ptg is also presented. The measurement of the ratio of cross sections leads to cancellation of various experimental and theoretical uncertainties, allowing a more precise comparison with the theoretical predictions. The results are based on the proton-antiproton ! collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $8.7$~fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=$1.96~\TeV collected with the \DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. %In this measurement, we follow an inclusive approach by allowing the final state with any additional jet(s) on top of the studied $b$-quark Inclusive $\gamma+2~b$-jet production may also originate from partonic subprocesses involving parton fragmentation into a photon. However, photon isolation requirements significantly reduces the contributions from such processes. The large data sample and use of advanced photon and $b$-jet identification tools enable us to measure the $\gamma+2~b$-jet production cross section differentially as a function of $\Ptg$. This allows for probing the dynamics of the production process over a wide kinematic range not studied before in other measurements of a vector boson + $b$-jet final state. The measured cross sections and their ratios are compared to the NLO perturbative Q CD calculations as well as predictions based on the $k_{\rm T}$-factorization approach and those from the {\sc sherpa} and {\sc pythia} Monte Carlo event generators. We also measure the ratio of cross sections, $\sigma(p\bar{p}\rightarrow Z+2~b~\text{jets})$/$\sigma(p\bar{p}\rightarrow Z+\text{2~jets})$, for associated production of a $Z$ boson with at least two This measurement uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the \DO experiment. The measured integrated ratio is in agreement with predictions from NLO perturbative QCD and the Monte Carlo event generators {\sc alpgen} and {\sc pythia}. A good theoretical description of this process is essential since it forms a major background for a variety of physics processes, including standard model Higgs boson production in association with a $Z$ boson, $ZH(H\rightarrow b\bar{b})$, and searches for supersymmetric partners of the $b$ quark. These results will improve our theoretical understanding as we search for phenomena beyond the standard! model us! ing the data from similar collider experiments in the case where the final states of the interaction involved the production of vector bosons in association with two $b$-quark jets. This work has been done in collaboration with \DO experiment but the analyses and results presented in this thesis are my contribution.