Using Collider Event Topology in the Search for the Six-Jet Decay of Top Quark-Antiquark Pairs

R. D. Field and Y. Kanev
Institute for Fundamental Theory, Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

Submitted to Physical Review D.

Abstract

We investigate the use of the event topology as a tool in the search for the six-jet decay of top-pair production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV. Modified Fox-Wolfram "shape" variables, Hl, are employed to help distinguish the top-pair signal from the ordinary QCD multi-jet background. The Hl's can be constructed directly from the calorimeter cells or from jets. Events are required to lie in a region of Hl-space defined by Ll < Hl < Rl for l=1,...6, where the left, Ll, and right, Rl, cuts are determined by a genetic algorithm (GA) procedure to maximize the signal over the square root of the background. We are able to reduce the background over the signal to less than a factor of 100 using purely topological methods without using jet multiplicity cuts and without the aid of b-quark tagging.


This research was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE).
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