We present an analysis of data from p p¯ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s =1800 GeV. A measurement is made of the ratio R≡σB(p p¯→W→eν)/σB(p p¯→Z0→ee). The data represent 19.6 pg−1 collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab during the 1992–1993 collider run of the Fermilab Tevatron. We find R=10.90±0.32(stat)±0.29(syst), and from this value we extract a measurement of the W→eν branching ratio Γ(W→eν)/Γ(W)=0.1094±0.0033(stat)±0.0031(syst). From this branching ratio we set a limit on the top quark mass of mt>62 GeV/c2 at the 95% confidence level. In contrast with direct searches for the top quark, this limit makes no assumptions about the allowed decay modes of the top quark. In addition, we use a calculation of the leptonic width Γ(W→eν) to obtain a value for the W total decay width: Γ(W)=2.064±0.060(stat)±0.059(syst) GeV.
We present the first measurement of the electron angular distribution parameter alpha_2 in W to e nu events produced in proton-antiproton collisions as a function of the W boson transverse momentum. Our analysis is based on data collected using the D0 detector during the 1994--1995 Fermilab Tevatron run. We compare our results with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, which predicts an angular distribution of (1 +/- alpha_1 cos theta* + alpha_2 cos^2 theta*), where theta* is the polar angle of the electron in the Collins-Soper frame. In the presence of QCD corrections, the parameters alpha_1 and alpha_2 become functions of p_T^W, the W boson transverse momentum. This measurement provides a test of next-to-leading order QCD corrections which are a non-negligible contribution to the W boson mass measurement.
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