I present a measurement of the tt¯ production cross section at s = 1.96 TeV using 2034 pb-1 of CDF Run II data using events with a high transverse momentum electron or muon, three or more jets, and missing transverse energy. The measurement assumes a t → Wb branching fraction of 100 percent. Events consistent with tt¯ decay are found by identifying jets containing heavy-flavor semileptonic decays to muons. The dominant backgrounds are evaluated directly from the data. Based on 248 candidate events and an expected background of 86.8+/-5.6 events, I measure a production cross section of 8.7+/-1.1+0.9-0.8+/-0.6 pb, in agreement with the Standard Model.

A measurement of the t{bar t} pair production cross section is presented using 162 pb{sup -1} of data collected by the CDF experiment during Run II at the Tevatron. t{bar t} events in the lepton+jets channel are isolated by identifying electrons and muons, reconstructing jets and transverse missing energy, and identifying b jets with a secondary vertex tagging algorithm. The efficiency of the algorithm is measured in a control sample using a novel technique that is less dependent on the simulation. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV/c{sup 2}, a cross section of {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 5.6{sub -1.1}{sup +1.2}(stat.){sub -0.6}{sup +0.9}(syst.)pb is measured.

This thesis describes a search for singly produced top quarks via an electroweak vertex in head-on proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of √s = 1.96 TeV. The analysis uses a total of 2.3 fb−1 of data collected with the D0 detector at Fermilab, corresponding to two different run periods of the Tevatron collider. Two channels contribute to single top quark production at the Tevatron, the s-channel and the t-channel. In the s-channel, a virtual W boson is produced from the aniquilation of a quark and an antiquark and a top and a bottom quarks are produced from the W decay. The top quark decays almost exclusively into a W boson and a bottom quark. Final states are considered in which the W boson decays leptonically into an electron or a muon plus a neutrino. Thus, at the detector level, the final state characterizing the s-channel contains one lepton, missing energy accounting for the neutrino, and two jets from the two bottom quarks. In the t-channel, the final state has an additional jet coming from a light quark. Clearly, a precise reconstruction of the events requires a precise measurement of the energy of the jets. A multivariate technique, Bayesian neural networks, is used to extract the single top signal from the overwhelming background still left after event selection. A Bayesian likelihood probability is then computed to measure the single top cross section. Assuming the observed excess is due to single top events, the measured single top quark production cross section is [sigma](p{bar p} → tb + X, tqb + X) = 4.70{sub -0.93}{sup +1.18} pb. The observed excess is associated with a p-value of (3.2 ± 2.3) x 10−8, assuming the background-only hypothesis. This p-value corresponds to an excess over background of 5.4 standard deviations for a Gaussian density. The p-value computed using the standard model signal cross section of 3.46 pb is (22.7 ± 0.6) x 10−6, corresponding to an expected significance of 4.08 standard deviations.

Abstract Not Provided.

Quarks, along with leptons and force carrying particles, are predicted by the Standard Model to be the fundamental constituents of nature. In distinction from the leptons, the quarks interact strongly through the chromodynamic force and are bound together within the hadrons. The familiar proton and neutron are bound states of the light ''up'' and ''down'' quarks. The most massive quark by far, the ''top'' quark, was discovered by the CDF and D0 experiments in March, 1995. The new quark was observed in p{bar p} collisions at 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The mass of the top quark was measured to be 176 {+-} 13 GeV/c{sup 2} and the cross section 6.8{sub -2.4}{sup +3.6} pb. It is the Q = 2/3, T{sub 3} = +1/2 member of the third generation weak-isospin doublet along with the bottom quark. The top quark is the final Standard Model quark to be discovered. Along with whatever is responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking, top quark physics is considered one of the least understood sectors of the Standard Model and represents a front line of our understanding of particle physics. Currently, the only direct measurements of top quark properties come from the CDF and D0 experiments observing p{bar p} collisions at the Tevatron. Top quark production at the Tevatron is almost exclusively by quark-antiquark annihilation, q{bar q} {yields} t{bar t} (85%), and gluon fusion, gg {yields} t{bar t} (15%), mediated by the strong force. The theoretical cross-section for this process is {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 6.7 {+-} 0.8 pb for m{sub t} = 175 GeV/c{sup 2}. Top quarks can also be produced at the Tevatron via q{bar b}{prime} {yields} tb and qg {yields} q{prime}tb through the weak interaction. The cross section for these processes is lower (3pb) and the signal is much more difficult to isolate as backgrounds are much higher. The top quark is predicted to decay almost exclusively into a W-boson and a bottom quark (t {yields} Wb). The total decay width t {yields} Wb is {Lambda} = 1.50 GeV. This corresponds to an incredibly short lifetime of 0.5 x 10{sup -24} seconds. This happens so quickly that hadronization and bound states do not take place, which leads to the interesting consequence that the top quark spin information is passed to the decay products.

The authors present recent preliminary measurements of the top-antitop pair production cross section and determinations of the top quark pole mass, performed using the data collected by the CDF and D0 Collaborations at the Tevatron Collider. In the lepton plus jets final state, with semileptonic B decay, the pair production cross section has now been measured at CDF using (almost equal to) 760 pb−1 of proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of (square root)s = 1.96 TeV. A measurement of the production cross section has also been made with (almost equal to) 1 fb−1 of data in the all-jets final state by the CDF Collaboration. The mass of the top quark has now been measured using (almost equal to) 1 fb−1 of collision data using all decay channels of the top quark pair, yielding the most precise measurements of the top mass to date.

A measurement of the top-antitop production cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV has been performed at the LHC with the CMS detector. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns and is based on the reconstruction of the final state with one isolated, high transverse-momentum electron or muon and three or more hadronic jets. The kinematic properties of the events are used to separate the top-antitop signal from W+jets and QCD multijet background events. The measured cross section is 173 + 39 - 32 (stat. + syst.) pb, consistent with standard model expectations.