We report on a measurement of the inclusive jet production cross section in pp-bar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV using data collected with the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab in Run II (CDF II) corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 385 pb^-1. Jets are reconstructed using the kt algorithm. The measurement is carried out for jets with rapidity 0.1 < | yjet | < 0.7 and transverse momentum in the range 54 < ptjet < 700 GeV/c. The measured cross section is in good agreement with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions after the necessary non-perturbative parton-to-hadron corrections are included.

We present a measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using 318 pb^{-1} of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We select ttbar decays into the final states e nu + jets and mu nu + jets, in which at least one b quark from the t-quark decays is identified using a secondary vertex-finding algorithm. Assuming a top quark mass of 178 GeV/c^2, we measure a cross section of 8.7 +-0.9 (stat) +1.1-0.9 (syst) pb. We also report the first observation of ttbar with significance greater than 5 sigma in the subsample in which both b quarks are identified, corresponding to a cross section of 10.1 +1.6-1.4(stat)+2.0-1.3 (syst) pb.

A measurement of the inclusive bottom jet cross section is presented for events containing a $Z$ boson in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV using the Collider Detector at Fermilab. $Z$ bosons are identified in their electron and muon decay modes, and $b$ jets with $E_T>20$ GeV and $|\eta|<1.5$ are identified by reconstructing a secondary decay vertex. The measurement is based on an integrated luminosity of about 330 ${\rm pb}^{-1}$. A cross section times branching ratio of $\sigma (Z+b {\rm jets}) \times {\cal B}(Z \to \ell^+ \ell^-)= 0.93 \pm 0.36$ pb is found, where ${\cal B}(Z\to \ell^+ \ell^-)$ is the branching ratio of the $Z$ boson or $\gamma^*$ into a single flavor dilepton pair ($e$ or $\mu$) in the mass range between 66 and 116 GeV$/c^2$. The ratio of $b$ jets to the total number of jets of any flavor in the $Z$ sample, within the same kinematic range as the $b$ jets, is $2.36 \pm 0.92%$. Here, the uncertainties are the quadratic sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. Predictions made with NLO QCD agree, within experimental and theoretical uncertainties, with these measurements.

We present a measurement of the inclusive jet cross section in ppbar interactions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV using 385 pb^{-1} of data collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The results are obtained using an improved cone-based jet algorithm (Midpoint). The data cover the jet transverse momentum range from 61 to 620 GeV/c, extending the reach by almost 150 GeV/c compared with previous measurements at the Tevatron. The results are in good agreement with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions using the CTEQ6.1M parton distribution functions.

We present the first observation of exclusive $e^+e^-$ production in hadron-hadron collisions, using $p\bar{p}$ collision data at \mbox{$\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV} taken by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of \mbox{532 pb$^{-1}$}. We require the absence of any particle signatures in the detector except for an electron and a positron candidate, each with transverse energy {$E_T>5$ GeV} and pseudorapidity {$|\eta|<2$}. With these criteria, 16 events are observed compared to a background expectation of {$1.9\pm0.3$} events. These events are consistent in cross section and properties with the QED process \mbox{$p\bar{p} \to p + e^+e^- + \bar{p}$} through two-photon exchange. The measured cross section is \mbox{$1.6^{+0.5}_{-0.3}\mathrm{(stat)}\pm0.3\mathrm{(syst)}$ pb}. This agrees with the theoretical prediction of {$1.71 \pm 0.01$ pb}.

We report the first observation of the associated production of a W boson and a Z boson. This result is based on 1.1 fb-1 of integrated luminosity from ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We observe 16 WZ candidates passing our event selection with an expected background of 2.7 +/- 0.4 events. A fit to the missing transverse energy distribution indicates an excess of events compared to the background expectation corresponding to a significance equivalent to six standard deviations. The measured cross section is sigma(ppbar -> WZ) = 5.0^{+1.8}_{-1.6} pb, consistent with the standard model expectation.

We have searched for exclusive 2-photon production in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV, using 532/pb of integrated luminosity taken by the Run II Collider Detector at Fermilab. The event signature requires two electromagnetic showers, each with transverse energy E_T > 5 GeV and pseudorapidity |eta|&lt;1.0, with no other particles detected in the event. Three candidate events are observed. We discuss the consistency of the three events with gamma-gamma, pi0-pi0, or eta-eta production. The probability that other processes fluctuate to 3 events or more is 1.7x10^-4. An upper limit on the cross section of p+pbar --> p+gamma-gamma+pbar is set at 410 fb with 95% confidence level.

We report the measurements of the t anti-t production cross section and of the top quark mass using 1.02 fb^-1 of p anti-p data collected with the CDFII detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We select events with six or more jets on which a number of kinematical requirements are imposed by means of a neural network algorithm. At least one of these jets must be identified as initiated by a b-quark candidate by the reconstruction of a secondary vertex. The cross section is measured to be sigma_{tt}=8.3+-1.0(stat.)+2.0-1.5(syst.)+-0.5(lumi.) pb, which is consistent with the standard model prediction. The top quark mass of 174.0+-2.2(stat.)+-4.8(syst.) GeV/c^2 is derived from a likelihood fit incorporating reconstructed mass distributions representative of signal and background.

We have measured the polarizations of J/ψ and ψ(2S) mesons as functions of their transverse momentum pT when they are produced promptly in the rapidity range |y|<0.6 with pT≥5  GeV/c. The analysis is performed using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of about 800  pb−1 collected by the CDF II detector. For both vector mesons, we find that the polarizations become increasingly longitudinal as pT increases from 5 to 30  GeV/c. These results are compared to the predictions of nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics and other contemporary models. The effective polarizations of J/ψ and ψ(2S) mesons from B-hadron decays are also reported.

We report on measurements of differential cross sections d sigma/d p_t for prompt charm meson production in p anti-p collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV using 5.8 +/- 0.3 pb-1 of data from the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. The data are collected with a new trigger that is sensitive to the long lifetime of hadrons containing heavy flavor. The charm meson cross sections are measured in the central rapidity region |y| \leq 1 in four fully reconstructed decay modes: D0 --> K- pi+, D*+ -> D0 pi+, D+ --> K- pi+ pi+, D+_s--> phi pi+, and their charge conjugates. The measured cross sections are compared to theoretical calculations.