Government Spending Cycles: Ideological or Opportunistic?

ands. The time series analysis, covering the period 1953–1993, allows for different types of government spending. In general, spending is inspired by ideological and opportunistic motives: all government expenditure categories show an upward drift during election times and the partisan motives behind government spending are clearly revealed: left-wing cabinets attach greater importance to social security and health care than right-wing cabinets and right-wing cabinets value expenditure on infrastructure and defense more than left-wing parties. Constructive comments by Frans van Winden, Wilko Letterie, Peter Cornelisse, Arie Ros, André de Moor, Harry ter Rele and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using Kinematic Characteristics of Lepton + Jets Events

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ttbar production cross section in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using 230 pb**{-1} of data collected by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), large missing transverse energy, and at least four jets, and extract the ttbar content of the sample based on the kinematic characteristics of the events. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure sigma(ttbar) = 6.7 {+1.4-1.3} (stat) {+1.6- 1.1} (syst) +/-0.4 (lumi) pb, in good agreement with the standard model prediction.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Lifetime b-tagging

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross section ($\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$) in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV using 230 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse energy, and jets in the final state. We employ lifetime-based b-jet identification techniques to further enhance the $t\bar{t}$ purity of the selected sample. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}=8.6^{+1.6}_{-1.5}(stat.+syst.)\pm 0.6(lumi.)$ pb, in agreement with the standard model expectation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Measurement of the Isolated Photon Cross Section in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

The cross section for the inclusive production of isolated photons has been measured in p anti-p collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The photons span transverse momenta 23 to 300 GeV and have pseudorapidity |eta|<0.9. The cross section is compared with the results from two next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The theoretical predictions agree with the measurement within uncertainties.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Lett.

Search for single top quark production in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV

We present a search for electroweak production of single top quarks in the s-channel and t-channel using neural networks for signal-background separation. We have analyzed 230 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV and find no evidence for a single top quark signal. The resulting 95% confidence level upper limits on the single top quark production cross sections are 6.4 pb in the s-channel and 5.0 pb in the t-channel.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the WW production cross section in p anti-p collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV

We present a measurement of the W boson pair-production cross section in p anti-p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. The data, collected with the Run II DO detector, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 224-252 pb^-1 depending on the final state (ee, emu or mumu). We observe 25 candidates with a background expectation of 8.1+/-0.6(stat)+/-0.6(syst)+/-0.5(lum) events. The probability for an upward fluctuation of the background to produce the observed signal is 2.3x10^-7, equivalent to 5.2 standard deviations.The measurement yields a cross section of 13.8+4.3/-3.8(stat)+1.2/-0.9(syst)+/-0.9(lum) pb, in agreement with predictions from the standard model.Comment: submitted to PR

Measurement of the Lambda^0_b lifetime in the decay Lambda^0_b -> J/psi Lambda^0 with the D0 Detector

We present measurements of the Lambda^0_b lifetime in the exclusive decay channel Lambda^0_{b}->J/psi Lambda^0, with J/psi to mu+ mu- and Lambda^0 to p pi-, the B^0 lifetime in the decay B^0 -> J/psi K^0_S with J/psi to mu+ mu- and K^0_S to pi+ pi-, and the ratio of these lifetimes. The analysis is based on approximately 250 pb^{-1} of data recorded with the D0 detector in pp(bar) collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV. The Lambda^0_b lifetime is determined to be tau(Lambda^0_b) = 1.22 +0.22/-0.18 (stat) +/- 0.04 (syst) ps, the B^0 lifetime tau(B^0) = 1.40 +0.11/-0.10 (stat) +/- 0.03 (syst) ps, and the ratio tau(Lambda^0_b)/tau(B^0) = 0.87 +0.17/-0.14 (stat) +/- 0.03 (syst). In contrast with previous measurements using semileptonic decays, this is the first determination of the Lambda^0_b lifetime based on a fully reconstructed decay channel.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Physical Review Letters, v2: Added FNAL Pub-numbe

Measurement of B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present the measurement of R = B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV, using 230 pb-1 of data collected by the DO experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We fit simultaneously R and the number of selected top quark pairs (ttbar), to the number of identified b-quark jets in events with one electron or one muon, three or more jets, and high transverse energy imbalance. To improve sensitivity, kinematical properties of events with no identified b-quark jets are included in the fit. We measure R = 1.03 +0.19 -0.17 (stat+syst), in good agreement with the standard model. We set lower limits of R > 0.61 and |V_tb| > 0.78 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the ZH --> neutrino-neutrino-b-b channel

We report a search for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson based on data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 260 pb^-1. We study events with missing transverse energy and two acoplanar b-jets, which provide sensitivity to the ZH production cross section in the neutrino-neutrino-b-b channel and to WH production, when the lepton from the W -> lepton+neutrino decay is undetected. The data are consistent with the SM background expectation, and we set 95% C.L. upper limits on sigma(p p-bar -> ZH/WH) x B(H -> b b-bar) from 3.4/8.3 to 2.5/6.3 pb, for Higgs masses between 105 and 135 GeV.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Search for a W ' boson decaying to a muon and a neutrino in pp collisions at √s =7 TeV

This is the Pre-Print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 ElsevierA new heavy gauge boson, W', decaying to a muon and a neutrino, is searched for in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass of 7 TeV. The data, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns. No significant excess of events above the standard model expectation is found in the transverse mass distribution of the muon-neutrino system. Masses below 1.40 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level for a sequential standard-model-like W'. The W' mass lower limit increases to 1.58 TeV when the present analysis is combined with the CMS result for the electron channel.This work is supported by the FMSR (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); Academy of Sciences and NICPB (Estonia); Academy of Finland, ME, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF and WCU (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); PAEC (Pakistan); SCSR (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MST and MAE (Russia); MSTD (Serbia); MICINN and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA)