Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for top squark pair production in compressed-mass-spectrum scenarios in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV using the alphaT variable

An inclusive search is performed for supersymmetry in final states containing jets and an apparent imbalance in transverse momentum, ptvecmiss, due to the production of unobserved weakly interacting particles in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data, recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 18.5 inverse femtobarns. The dimensionless kinematic variable alphaT is used to discriminate between events with genuine ptvecmiss associated with unobserved particles and spurious values of ptvecmiss arising from jet energy mismeasurements. No excess of event yields above the expected standard model backgrounds is observed. The results are interpreted in terms of constraints on the parameter space of several simplified models of supersymmetry that assume the pair production of top squarks. The search provides sensitivity to a broad range of top squark decay modes, including the two-body decay top squark to c chi0, where c is a charm quark and chi0 is the lightest neutralino, as well as the four-body decay top squark to b f bar-f' chi0, where b is a bottom quark and f and bar-f' are fermions produced in the decay of an intermediate off-shell W boson. These modes dominate in scenarios in which the top squark and lightest neutralino are nearly degenerate in mass. For these modes, top squarks with masses as large as 260 and 230 GeV are excluded, respectively, for the two- and four-body decays

Measurement of the integrated and differential ttˉt \bar t production cross sections for high-pTp_T top quarks in pppp collisions at s=\sqrt s = 8 TeV

The cross section for pair production of top quarks $(t\bar{t})$ with high transverse momenta is measured in pp collisions, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV in data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb$^{-1}$. The measurement is performed using lepton+jets events, where one top quark decays semileptonically, while the second top quark decays to a hadronic final state. The hadronic decay is reconstructed as a single, large-radius jet, and identified as a top quark candidate using jet substructure techniques. The integrated cross section and the differential cross sections as a function of top quark $p_T$ and rapidity are measured at particle level within a fiducial region related to the detector-level requirements and at parton level. The particle-level integrated cross section is found to be $\sigma_{t\bar{t}} =$ 0.499 $\pm$ 0.035 (stat+syst) $\pm$ 0.095 (theory) $\pm$ 0.013 (lumi) pb for top quark $p_T$ > 400 GeV. The parton-level measurement is $\sigma_{t\bar{t}} =$ 1.44 $\pm$ 0.10 (stat+syst) $\pm$ 0.29 (theory) $\pm$ 0.04 (lumi) pb. The integrated and differential cross section results are compared to predictions from several event generators

Multiplicity and rapidity dependence of strange hadron production in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions at the LHC

Measurements of strange hadron (K0s, Lambda + anti-Lambda, and Xi+ + Xi-) transverse momentum spectra in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions are presented over a wide range of rapidity and event charged-particle multiplicity. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, pPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV, and PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV. The average transverse kinetic energy is found to increase with multiplicity, at a faster rate for heavier strange particle species in all systems. At similar multiplicities, the difference in average transverse kinetic energy between different particle species is observed to be larger for pp and pPb events than for PbPb events. In pPb collisions, the average transverse kinetic energy is found to be slightly larger in the Pb-going direction than in the p-going direction for events with large multiplicity. The spectra are compared to models motivated by hydrodynamics

Measurements of the associated production of a Z boson and b jets in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 8 TeV

Measurements of the associated production of a Z boson with at least one jet originating from a b quark in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV are presented. Differential cross sections are measured with data collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.8 inverse femtobarns. Z bosons are reconstructed through their decays to electrons and muons. Cross sections are measured as a function of observables characterizing the kinematics of the b jet and the Z boson. Ratios of differential cross sections for the associated production with at least one b jet to the associated production with any jet are also presented. The production of a Z boson with two b jets is investigated, and differential cross sections are measured for the dijet system. Results are compared to theoretical predictions, testing two different flavour schemes for the choice of initial-state partons