Theoretical and Experimental Considerations for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

In the rst part of this work we show some theoretical aspects of the generation of the neutrino mass by means of a direct extension of the Standard Model of particles, which include the presence of heavy right-handed neutrinos and large Majorana mass terms. From these two new ingredients, it is possible to nd a mass for the light neutrinos which is naturally of the order of 1 eV or less. The idea is to put these theoretical aspects in the context of the search for neutrino mass values by the study of the signal from the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Process (0 ). In the second part, a brief summary is given of the experimental considerations required for the measurement of effective Majorana neutrino mass using (0 ). Measurement strategies and background considerations are introduced and an outline of both active and passive methods is given. Finally, current results are discussed with particular emphasis on the HeidelbergMoscow experiment. This note is based on the presentation given at the CERNCLAF 4th Latin American School on High-Energy Physics

Precise measurement of the top quark mass in the dilepton channel at D0

We measure the top quark mass (mt) in ppbar collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV using dilepton ttbar->W+bW-bbar->l+nubl-nubarbbar events, where l denotes an electron, a muon, or a tau that decays leptonically. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1 collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We obtain mt = 174.0 +- 1.8(stat) +- 2.4(syst) GeV, which is in agreement with the current world average mt = 173.3 +- 1.1 GeV. This is currently the most precise measurement of mt in the dilepton channel.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section

The D0 collaboration reports direct evidence for electroweak production of single top quarks through the t-channel exchange of a virtual W boson. This is the first analysis to isolate an individual single top quark production channel. We select events containing an isolated electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and two, three or four jets from 2.3 fb^-1 of ppbar collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. One or two of the jets are identified as containing a b hadron. We combine three multivariate techniques optimized for the t-channel process to measure the t- and s-channel cross sections simultaneously. We measure cross sections of 3.14 +0.94 -0.80 pb for the t-channel and 1.05 +-0.81 pb for the s-channel. The measured t-channel result is found to have a significance of 4.8 standard deviations and is consistent with the standard model prediction.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Measurement of Semileptonic Branching Fractions of B Mesons to Narrow D** States

Using the data accumulated in 2002-2004 with the DO detector in proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider with centre-of-mass energy 1.96 TeV, the branching fractions of the decays B -> \bar{D}_1^0(2420) \mu^+ \nu_\mu X and B -> \bar{D}_2^{*0}(2460) \mu^+ \nu_\mu X and their ratio have been measured: BR(\bar{b}->B) \cdot BR(B-> \bar{D}_1^0 \mu^+ \nu_\mu X) \cdot BR(\bar{D}_1^0 -> D*- pi+) = (0.087+-0.007(stat)+-0.014(syst))%; BR(\bar{b}->B)\cdot BR(B->D_2^{*0} \mu^+ \nu_\mu X) \cdot BR(\bar{D}_2^{*0} -> D*- \pi^+) = (0.035+-0.007(stat)+-0.008(syst))%; and (BR(B -> \bar{D}_2^{*0} \mu^+ \nu_\mu X)BR(D2*0->D*- pi+)) / (BR(B -> \bar{D}_1^{0} \mu^+ \nu_\mu X)\cdot BR(\bar{D}_1^{0}->D*- \pi^+)) = 0.39+-0.09(stat)+-0.12(syst), where the charge conjugated states are always implied.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in the lepton+jets channel in proton-antiproton collisions at s\sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV

We present a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross section in \ppbar collisions at (\sqrt{s}=1.96) TeV utilizing data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of \lumi\ collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We consider final states containing one high-$p_{T}$ isolated electron or muon and at least two jets, and we perform three analyses: one exploiting specific kinematic features of \ttbar events, the second using $b$-jet identification, and the third using both techniques to separate \ttbar\ signal from background. In the third case, we determine simultaneously the $t\bar{t}$ cross section and the ratio of the production rates of $W$+heavy flavor jets and $W$+light flavor jets, which reduces the impact of the systematic uncertainties related to the background estimation. Assuming a top quark mass of 172.5 GeV, we obtain $\sigma_{t\bar{t}} = 7.78^{+0.77}_{-0.64}$ pb. This result agrees with predictions of the standard model.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Search for first generation leptoquark pair production in the electron + missing energy + jets final state

We present a search for the pair production of first generation scalar leptoquarks (LQ) in data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in ppbar collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV. In the channel $LQ \bar{LQ} \rightarrow e\nu_e qq'$, where q, q' are u or d quarks, no significant excess of data over background is observed, and we set a 95% C.L. lower limit of 326 GeV on the leptoquark mass, assuming equal probabilities of leptoquark decays to eq and $\nu_e q'$.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRD-R

Measurement of the W boson mass

We present a measurement of the W boson mass in W -> ev decays using 1 fb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector during Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron collider. With a sample of 499830 W -> ev candidate events, we measure M_W = 80.401 +- 0.043 GeV. This is the most precise measurement from a single experiment.Comment: As published in PR

Search for single vector-like quarks in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for hypothetical vector-like quarks in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV. The data were collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb^(-1). We select events with a final state composed of a W or Z boson and a jet consistent with a heavy object decay. We observe no significant excess in comparison to the background prediction and set limits on production cross sections for vector-like quarks decaying to W+jet and Z+jet. These are the most stringent mass limits for electroweak single vector-like quark production at hadron colliders.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Measurement of the lifetime of the B_c meson in the semileptonic decay channel

Using approximately 1.3 fb-1 of data collected by the D0 detector between 2002 and 2006, we measure the lifetime of the B_c meson in the B_c -> J/psi mu nu X final state. A simultaneous unbinned likelihood fit to the J/\psi+mu invariant mass and lifetime distributions yields a signal of 881 +/- 80 (stat) candidates and a lifetime measurement of \tau(B_c) = 0.448 +0.038 -0.036 (stat) +/- 0.032 (syst) ps.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Search for sneutrino production in emu final states in 5.3 fb^-1 of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) =1.96 TeV

We report the results of a search for R parity violating (RPV) interactions leading to the production of supersymmetric sneutrinos decaying into emu final states using 5.3 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Having observed no evidence for production of emu resonances, we set direct bounds on the RPV couplings lambda^'_311 and lambda_312 as a function of sneutrino mass.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To be submitted to Phys. Rev. Let