First Measurement of the $b$-Jet Cross Section in Events with a $W$ Boson in $p\overline{p}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$

First Measurement of the $b$ -Jet Cross Section in Events with a $W$ Boson in $p \bar{p}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV$

T. Aaltonen et al. (CDF Collaboration)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 131801 – Published 2 April 2010

Abstract

The cross section for jets from $b$ quarks produced with a $W$ boson has been measured in $p \bar{p}$ collision data from $1.9 {fb}^{- 1}$ of integrated luminosity recorded by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron. The $W + b$ -jets process poses a significant background in measurements of top quark production and prominent searches for the Higgs boson. We measure a $b$ -jet cross section of $2.74 \pm 0.27 (stat) \pm 0.42 (syst) pb$ in association with a single flavor of leptonic $W$ boson decay over a limited kinematic phase space. This measured result cannot be accommodated in several available theoretical predictions.