Measurement of the polar-angle distribution of leptons from W boson decay as a function of the W transverse momentum in p̅p collisions at √s=1.8 TeV

Authors

Darin Acosta, University of FloridaFollow
Kenneth A. Bloom, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Collider Detector at Fermilab Collaboration

Date of this Version

8-13-2004

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. D 70, 032004 (2004). http://prd.aps.org. Copyright © 2004 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the polar-angle distribution of leptons from W boson decay, as a function of the W transverse momentum. The measurement uses an 80±4 pb^-1 sample of pp̅ collisions at √s =1.8 TeV collected by the CDF detector and includes data from both the W→e+ν and W→µ+ν decay channels. We fit the W boson transverse mass distribution to a set of templates from a Monte Carlo event generator and detector simulation in several ranges of the W transverse momentum. The measurement agrees with the standard model expectation, whereby the ratio of longitudinally to transversely polarized W bosons, in the Collins-Soper W rest frame, increases with the W transverse momentum at a rate of approximately 15% per 10 GeV/c.