Measurement of the angular distribution of electrons from W→eν decays observed in pp̅ collisions at √s =1.8 TeV

Authors

B. Abbott, New York University, New York, New York 10003
Gregory R. Snow, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
D0 Collaboration

Date of this Version

3-1-2001

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. D 63, 072001 (2001). http://prd.aps.org. Copyright © 2001 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

We present the first measurement of the electron angular distribution parameter α₂ in W→eν events produced in proton-antiproton collisions as a function of the W boson transverse momentum. Our analysis is based on data collected using the DØ detector during the 1994–1995 Fermilab Tevatron run. We compare our results with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, which predicts an angular distribution of (1 ± α₁cos θ*+ α₂ cos² θ*), where θ* is the polar angle of the electron in the Collins-Soper frame. In the presence of QCD corrections, the parameters a1 and a2 become functions of p_T^W, the W boson transverse momentum. This measurement provides a test of next-to-leading order QCD corrections which are a nonnegligible contribution to the W boson mass measurement.