Plain english summaries of CDF publications
For the public
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Listed in this page are plain English summaries of published CDF results. An effort has been made to describe the relevance of these results to the scientifically curious public.
- Global search for new physics in CDF data
Typically, a CDF analysis will study one type of event, creating a detailed model of this single "channel" in order to search for new physics in the data. Instead, this analysis searches hundreds of different types of events produced at CDF in order to broadly look for discrepancies between what we expect to see and what the data shows us. This search could allow us to find new physics processes in places that we might never have looked in single channel analyses.
- Pentaquark production
We know that there are 3-quark composite states like the proton, and 2-quark states, but some experiments have now claimed the existence of a 5-quark state. CDF has searched for this state, and found evidence against it.
- Exclusive photon pair production and also see Fermilab Today article
Typically, when we create new particles in a particle collider, the incoming proton and antiproton are broken up. In this measurement, a special case of interaction happens where particles are produced without destroying the incoming particles.
- Precise B_c mass measurement and also see Fermilab Today article
The B_c meson is the heaviest particle composed of two different quarks. This analysis is the first precise mass determination of this state.
- Search for Higgs in tau pairs and also see Fermilab Today article
Higgs bosons decay primarily to heavy particles. In this analysis, a Higgs is searched for decaying to a tau+ and a tau- particle.
- The Search for a heavier Higgs Boson and also see Fermilab Today article
The Higgs boson is an artifact of the theory which explains the mass of fundamental particles.
The standard model of particle physics describes the interactions between elementary particles.
In the most basic form of the model, the fundamental force carriers are treated as massless particles.
Since we know from experiments that particles do have mass, the standard model is equipped with the "Higgs mechanism", by which the symmetry of massless particles is broken and non-zero masses become possible. If this theory is true, an extra particle, called the Higgs boson, should exist.
- Observation of a Narrow State X(3872) and also see Fermilab Today article
Particle spectroscopy appears to be making a comeback with the recent
observation of several unexpected narrow particles containing charmed quarks
at the B factories. This analysis reports the first observation of one of
these particles, the X(3872), at the Tevatron. The observation of this
narrow state has invited speculation that an exotic form of matter made up
of 2 quarks and 2 anti-quarks may be been observed.
- Direct Kaluza-Klein graviton production at CDF
This analysis is looking for events with large missing energy and a high
energy jet. This is a characteristic signature for graviton production in
the context of scenarios of extra spacial dimensions.
- Total top quark cross section:
The discovery of the top quark was one of the major results of the CDF collaboration. In this paper we measure how frequently top quarks are produced relative to other more common processes.
- Double Diffraction Dissociation:
and also see Fermilab Today article
This is one of several studies done at the Tevatron on Diffractive processes. In this paper our measurements are compared with theoretical predictions and similar results at the HERA electron-proton collider.
- Supersymmetry search using Missing Energy:
and also see Fermilab Today article
This is a "blind search" for the supersymmetric partners of the quarks and the gluons that eventually decay into the lighest supersymmetric particle (LSP). In the search we look for a large energy imbalance in the detector, due to the heavy LSP that escapes the detector without leaving a trace.
- Search for the Decay Bs ® m+ m- j in
Proton-Antiproton Collisions:
This is a search for decays of the Bs mesons that can occur only through rather unlikely mechanisms according to our current understanding. This leads to the expectation of very small decay probabilities (branching ratios) into these final states. New physics could make available additional paths to the final states studied, possibly increasing rather significantly these branching ratios. No signal is observed in this search.
- Supersymmetry search using Photons and b-quarks:
This is a search for supersymmetry, which looks for
typical signatures involving photons and b-quarks in the final state.
This search does not find evidence for the production of supersymmetric particles and sets limits to their maximum allowed production rate.
- Charged Jet Evolution
and the
Underlying Event in Proton-Antiproton Collisions
This is a study of the growth and development of "charged particle
jets"
produced in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV. A variety of leading
(highest transverse momentum) "charged jet" observables
are compared with the QCD Monte-Carlo models HERWIG, ISAJET, and
PYTHIA. The
direction of the leading "charged particle jet" in each event is
used
to define three regions of eta-phi space. The "toward" region
contains the
leading "charged particle jet", while the
"away" region, on the
average, contains the away-side jet. The "transverse" region is
perpendicular to the plane of the hard 2-to-2 parton scattering and is
very sensitive
to the "underlying event" component of the QCD Monte-Carlo
models.
- Ratio of b-quark cross sections at 1800 and 630 GeV
The production rates for creating particles containing beauty quarks from proton-antiproton interaction at two different beam center-of-mass energies are compared. We find that while the absolute value of these rates is higher than expectations from theory, their ratio agrees well with theory.
- Cross-section for J/psi production
The J/psi meson is a bound state of a charmed quark and an anti-charm quark. We study several features of its production mechanism.
- Study of central rapidity gaps in events with a leading anti-proton
This study continues the investigation of diffractive processes and their relation to rapidity gaps at the Tevatron.
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