Evidence for the associated production of a single top quark and a photon in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV
File(s)PhysRevLett.121.221802.pdf (598.25 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The first evidence of events consistent with the production of a single top quark in association with a photon is reported. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV and recorded by the CMS experiment in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb^{-1}. Events are selected by requiring the presence of a muon (μ), a photon (γ), an imbalance in transverse momentum from an undetected neutrino (ν), and at least two jets (j) of which exactly one is identified as associated with the hadronization of a b quark. A multivariate discriminant based on topological and kinematic event properties is employed to separate signal from background processes. An excess above the background-only hypothesis is observed, with a significance of 4.4 standard deviations. A fiducial cross section is measured for isolated photons with transverse momentum greater than 25 GeV in the central region of the detector. The measured product of the cross section and branching fraction is σ(pp→tγj)B(t→μνb)=115±17(stat)±30(syst) fb, which is consistent with the standard model prediction.
Date Issued
2018-11-30
Date Acceptance
2018-11-01
Citation
Physical Review Letters, 2018, 121 (22)
ISSN
0031-9007
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal / Book Title
Physical Review Letters
Volume
121
Issue
22
Copyright Statement
© 2018 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30547617
Subjects
hep-ex
02 Physical Sciences
General Physics
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
221802
Date Publish Online
2018-11-29