Search for $s$-channel Single Top Quark Production in the Missing Energy Plus Jets Sample using the Full CDF II Data Set

Abstract

The first search for single top quark production from the exchange of an $s$-channel virtual $W$ boson using events with an imbalance in the total transverse momentum, $b$-tagged jets, and no identified leptons is presented. The full data set collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45 fb$^{-1}$ from Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV, is used. Assuming the electroweak production of top quarks of mass 172.5 GeV/$c^2$ in the $s$-channel, a cross section of $1.12_{-0.57}^{+0.61}$ (stat+syst) pb, with a significance of 1.9 standard deviations, is measured. This measurement is combined with a previous result obtained from events with an imbalance in total transverse momentum, $b$-tagged jets, and exactly one identified lepton, yielding a cross section of $1.36_{-0.32}^{+0.37}$ (stat+syst) pb, with a significance of 4.2 standard deviations.

submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett