Measurement of the helicity of W bosons in top-quark decays

Journal article

We measure the branching fraction of the top quark to longitudinally and right-handed polarized W bosons, F0 and F+, using approximately 200pb-1 of p̄p collisions collected by the CDF II detector. We analyze two quantities sensitive to the W helicity: the invariant mass of the charged lepton and the bottom-quark jet in the decay t→Wb→ νb (where =e or μ), and the transverse momentum of the charged lepton. Constrained fits yield F0=0.74-0.34+0.22, and F+<0.27 at the 95% confidence level. These measurements are consistent with the standard model predictions. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

Authors: Abulencia, A; Acosta, D; Adelman, J; Affolder, T; Akimoto, T

• Journal: Physical Review D
• Volume: 73
• Issue: 11
• Publication date: 2006-01-01
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.73.111103
• EISSN: 1550-2368
• ISSN: 1550-7998
• Language: English