We present a study of pp¯ collisions at s=1800 and 630 GeV collected using a minimum bias trigger by the CDF experiment in which the data set is divided into two classes corresponding to “soft” and “hard” interactions. For each subsample, the analysis includes measurements of the multiplicity, transverse momentum (pT) spectrum, and the average pT and event-by-event pT dispersion as a function of multiplicity. A comparison of results shows distinct differences in the behavior of the two samples as a function of the center of mass (c.m.) energy. We find evidence that the properties of the soft sample are invariant as a function of c.m. energy.

We report evidence for $s$-channel single-top-quark production in proton-antiproton collisions at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}= 1.96 \mathrm{TeV}$ using a data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $9.4 \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We select events consistent with the $s$-channel process including two jets and one leptonically decaying $W$ boson. The observed significance is $3.8$ standard deviations with respect to the background-only prediction. Assuming a top-quark mass of $172.5 \mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, we measure the $s$-channel cross section to be $1.41^{+0.44}_{-0.42} \mathrm{pb}$.

We present an analysis of top-antitop quark production and decay into a tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark using data from $9 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Dilepton events, where one lepton is an energetic electron or muon and the other a hadronically-decaying tau lepton, originating from proton-antiproton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV$ are used. A top-antitop quark production cross section of $8.1 \pm 2.1 {\rm pb}$ is measured, assuming standard-model top-quark decays. By separately identifying for the first time the single-tau and the ditau components, we measure the branching fraction of the top quark into tau lepton, tau neutrino, and bottom quark to be $(9.6 \pm 2.8) %$. The branching fraction of top-quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark, which would imply violation of lepton universality, is limited to be less than $5.9%$ at $95%$ confidence level.

We report a measurement of the differential cross section, d{\sigma}/d(cos {\theta}t), for top-quark-pair production as a function of the top-quark production angle in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV. This measurement is performed using data collected with the CDF II detector at the Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.4/fb. We employ the Legendre polynomials to characterize the shape of the differential cross section at the parton level. The observed Legendre coefficients are in good agreement with the prediction of the next-to-leading-order standard-model calculation, with the exception of an excess linear-term coefficient, a1 = 0.40 +- 0.12, compared to the standard-model prediction of a1 = 0.15^{+0.07}_{-0.03}.

The cross section for photon production in association with at least one jet containing a $b$-quark hadron has been measured in proton antiproton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 340 pb$^{-1}$ collected with the CDF II detector. Both the differential cross section as a function of photon transverse energy $E_T^{\gamma}$, $d \sigma$($p \overline{p} \to \gamma + \geq 1 b$-jet)/$d E_T^{\gamma}$ and the total cross section $\sigma$($p \overline{p} \to \gamma + \geq 1 b$-jet/ $E_T^{\gamma}> 20$ GeV) are measured. Comparisons to a next-to-leading order prediction of the process are presented.

We study the underlying event in proton-antiproton collisions by examining the behavior of charged particles (transverse momentum pT > 0.5 GeV/c, pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1) produced in association with large transverse momentum jets (~2.2 fb-1) or with Drell-Yan lepton-pairs (~2.7 fb-1) in the Z-boson mass region (70 < M(pair) < 110 GeV/c2) as measured by CDF at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy. We use the direction of the lepton-pair (in Drell-Yan production) or the leading jet (in high-pT jet production) in each event to define three regions of \eta-\phi space; toward, away, and transverse, where \phi is the azimuthal scattering angle. For Drell-Yan production (excluding the leptons) both the toward and transverse regions are very sensitive to the underlying event. In high-pT jet production the transverse region is very sensitive to the underlying event and is separated into a MAX and MIN transverse region, which helps separate the hard component (initial and final-state radiation) from the beam-beam remnant and multiple parton interaction components of the scattering. The data are corrected to the particle level to remove detector effects and are then compared with several QCD Monte-Carlo models. The goal of this analysis is to provide data that can be used to test and improve the QCD Monte-Carlo models of the underlying event that are used to simulate hadron-hadron collisions.

This paper reports a measurement of the cross section for the pair production of top quarks in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The data was collected from the CDF II detector in a set of runs with a total integrated luminosity of 1.1 fb^{-1}. The cross section is measured in the dilepton channel, the subset of ttbar events in which both top quarks decay through t -> Wb -> l nu b where l = e, mu, or tau. The lepton pair is reconstructed as one identified electron or muon and one isolated track. The use of an isolated track to identify the second lepton increases the ttbar acceptance, particularly for the case in which one W decays as W -> tau nu. The purity of the sample may be further improved at the cost of a reduction in the number of signal events, by requiring an identified b-jet. We present the results of measurements performed with and without the request of an identified b-jet. The former is the first published CDF result for which a b-jet requirement is added to the dilepton selection. In the CDF data there are 129 pretag lepton + track candidate events, of which 69 are tagged. With the tagging information, the sample is divided into tagged and untagged sub-samples, and a combined cross section is calculated by maximizing a likelihood. The result is sigma_{ttbar} = 9.6 +/- 1.2 (stat.) -0.5 +0.6 (sys.) +/- 0.6 (lum.) pb, assuming a branching ratio of BR(W -> ell nu) = 10.8% and a top mass of m_t = 175 GeV/c^2.

We report two complementary measurements of the WW+WZ cross section in the final state consisting of an electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and jets, performed using p\bar{p} collision data at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector. The first method uses the dijet invariant mass distribution while the second more sensitive method uses matrix-element calculations. The result from the second method has a signal significance of 5.4 sigma and is the first observation of WW+WZ production using this signature. Combining the results gives sigma_{WW+WZ} = 16.0 +/- 3.3 pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.

The properties of high-mass multijet events produced at the Fermilab proton-antiproton collider are compared with leading order QCD matrix element predictions, QCD parton shower Monte Carlo predictions, and the predictions from a model in which events are distributed uniformly over the available multibody phase-space. Multijet distributions corresponding to (4N-4) variables that span the N-body parameter space are found to be well described by the QCD calculations for inclusive three-jet, four-jet, and five-jet events. The agreement between data, QCD Matrix Element calculations, and QCD parton shower Monte Carlo predictions suggests that 2 -> 2 scattering plus gluon radiation provides a good first approximation to the full LO QCD matrix element for events with three, four, or even five jets in the final state.

The properties of two-, three-, four-, five-, and six-jet events with multijet masses >600 GeV /c2 are compared with QCD predictions. The shapes of the multijet-mass and leading-jet-angular distributions are approximately independent of jet multiplicity and are well described by the NJETS matrix element calculation and the HERWIG parton shower Monte Carlo predictions. The observed jet transverse momentum distributions for three- and four-jet events discriminate between the matrix element and parton shower predictions, the data favoring the matrix element calculation.