Search for a $W^{\prime }$ Boson Decaying to a Top and Bottom Quark Pair in 1.8 TeV $p\overline{p}$ Collisions

We report the results of a search for a $W^{\prime }$ boson produced in $p\overline{p}$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV using a $106{\mathrm{p}\mathrm{b}}^{-1}$ data sample recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We observe no significant excess of events above background for a $W^{\prime }$ boson decaying to a top and bottom quark pair. In a model where this boson would mediate interactions involving a massive right-handed neutrino (${\nu }_R$) and have standard model strength couplings, we use these data to exclude a $W^{\prime }$ boson with mass between 225 and $536\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c^2$ at 95% confidence level for $M_{W^{\prime }}\gg M_{{\nu }_R}$ and between 225 and $566\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c^2$ at 95% confidence level for $M_{W^{\prime }}<M_{{\nu }_R}$.

Figure 1

The $Wb\overline{b}$ mass spectrum of the candidate events after constraining the lepton-neutrino invariant mass to the $W$ boson mass. The distribution expected from the production of a $W^{\prime }$ boson with a mass of $500\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/c^2$ is illustrated by the dashed curve. The distribution expected from the background processes is shown by the solid curve.

Figure 2

The upper limits on the $W^{\prime }$ boson production cross section as a function of the $W^{\prime }$ boson mass. Limits are shown for the case $M_{W^{\prime }}\gg M_{{\nu }_R}$ (solid) and $M_{W^{\prime }}<M_{{\nu }_R}$ (dashed). The intercepts at $[\sigma \mathcal{B}(W^{\prime }\to tb)]/[\sigma \mathcal{B}(W^{\prime }\to tb{)}_{\mathrm{S}\mathrm{M}}]=1$ correspond to the 95% C.L. limits on the $W^{\prime }$ boson mass with standard model strength couplings.