A measurement of the W boson helicity is presented, where the W boson originates from the decay of a top quark produced in pp collisions. The event selection, optimized for reconstructing a single top quark in the final state, requires exactly one isolated lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets, one of which is likely to originate from the hadronization of a bottom quark. The analysis is performed using data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2012. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The measured helicity fractions are F[L] = 0.298 +/- 0.028 (stat) +\- 0.032 (syst), F[0] = 0.720 +/- 0.039 (stat) +/- 0.037 (syst), and F[R] = -0.018 +/- 0.019 (stat) +/- 0.011 (syst). These results are used to set limits on the real part of the tWb anomalous couplings, gL and gR.
Measurement of the W helicity fractions using the cos(theta*l) distribution in the muon channel. The helicity fractions corresponding to the longitudinal (F0) and left-handed (FL) polarizations are extracted from the fit while FR is obtained from the constraint of FL+FR+F0 = 1. The statistical correlation between the fit parameters is about -0.90.
Measurement of the W helicity fractions using the cos(theta*l) distribution in the electron channel. The helicity fractions corresponding to the longitudinal (F0) and left-handed (FL) polarizations are extracted from the fit while FR is obtained from the constraint of FL+FR+F0 = 1. The statistical correlation between the fit parameters is about -0.90.
Measurement of the W helicity fractions using the cos(theta*l) distribution in both electron and muon channels. The helicity fractions corresponding to the longitudinal (F0) and left-handed (FL) polarizations are extracted from the combined fit while FR is obtained from the constraint of FL+FR+F0 = 1. The total correlation between the fit parameters is about -0.80.
A measurement of the electron charge asymmetry in inclusive pp to W + X to e nu + X production at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented based on data recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 840 inverse picobarns. The electron charge asymmetry reflects the unequal production of positive and negative W bosons in pp collisions. The electron charge asymmetry is measured in bins of absolute value of electron pseudorapidity in the range of abs(eta) < 2.4. The asymmetry rises from about 0.1 to 0.2 as a function of the pseudorapidity and is measured with a relative precision better than 7%. This measurement provides new stringent constraints for parton distribution functions.
Summary of the measured charge asymmetry results. The first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The theoretical predictions are obtained using MCFM interfaced with four different PDF models. The PDF uncertainties are estimated using the PDF reweighting technique. All values are in units of $10^{-3}$.
Covariance matrix for the systematic uncertainties on the asymmetry. All values are given in units of $10^{-6}$.
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