Open AccessOptimizing the top quark signal to background ratio at hadron colliders
Author(s) -
R. D. Field,
Y. Kanev,
M. Tayebnejad
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/393332
Subject(s) - physics , hadron , bar (unit) , event (particle physics) , antiproton , particle physics , signal (programming language) , calorimeter (particle physics) , nuclear physics , energy (signal processing) , quark , proton , optics , computer science , astrophysics , quantum mechanics , detector , meteorology , programming language
We investigate the event signature of the {ell}{nu}b{bar b}q{bar q} decay mode of top-pair production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV. Neural networks and Fisher discriminates are used in conjunction with modified Fox-Wolfram {open_quotes}shape{close_quotes} variables to help distinguish the top-pair signal from the W + jets and b{bar b}+jets background. Instead of requiring at least four jets in the event, we find that it is faster and better to simply cut on the number of calorimeter cells with transverse energy greater than some minimum. By combining these cell cuts with the event shape information, we are able to obtain a signal to background ratio of around 9 while keeping 30% of the signal. This corresponds to a signal to background enhancement of around 370