Measurement of the W boson helicity in top quark decay at D0

Abstract

The authors present a measurement of the fraction f{sub +} of right-handed W bosons produced in top quark decays, based on a candidate sample of t{bar t} events in the {ell}+jets and dilepton decay channels corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 370 pb{sup -1} collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron p{bar p} Collider at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. They reconstruct the decay angle {theta}* for each lepton. By comparing the cos{theta}* distribution from the data with those for the expected background and signal for various values of f{sub +}, they find f{sub +} = 0.056 {+-} 0.080(stat) {+-} 0.057(syst). (f{sub +} < 0.23 at 95% C.L.), consistent with the standard model prediction of f{sub +} = 3.6 x 10{sup -4}

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