In this thesis we present a search for the WZ and ZZ production in a final state ("W+2 jets") with a leptonically-decaying W and two energetic jets. We use the full dataset (+"Ldt = 8:9 fb-1) recorded with the CDF detector at Fermilab. The challenge consists in extracting the small Z-hadronic peak from the large amount of background processes. Those processes also include the WW, whose hadronic peak cannot be distinguished from the Z peak, due to the poor calorimeter resolution. In the past such a signature was used to measure the diboson cross section, which is highly dominated by the WW cross section.

The Standard Model of particle physics describes weak interactions mediated by massive gauge bosons that interact with each other in well-defined ways. Observations of the production and decay of WW, WZ, and ZZ boson pairs are an opportunity to check that these self-interactions agree with the Standard Model predictions. Furthermore, final states that include quarks are very similar to the most prominent final state of Higgs bosons produced in association with a W or Z boson. Diboson production where WW is a significant component has been observed at the Tevatron collider in semi-hadronic decay modes. We present a search for ZW and ZZ production in a final state containing two charged leptons and two jets using 8.9 fb−1 of data recorded with the CDF detector at the Tevatron. We select events by identifying those that contain two charged leptons, two hadronic jets, and low transverse missing energy ( E /T ). We increase our acceptance by using a wide suite of high- pT lepton triggers and by relaxing many lepton identification requirements. We develop a new method for calculating corrections to jet energies based on whether the originating parton was a quark or gluon to improve the agreement between data and the Monte Carlo simulations used to model our diboson signal and dominant backgrounds. We also make use of neural-network-based discriminants that are trained to pick out jets originating from b quarks and light-flavor quarks, thereby increasing our sensitivity to Z → bb ̄ and W/Z → qq ̄' decays, respectively. The number of signal events is extracted through a simultaneous fit to the dijet mass spectrum in three channels: a heavy-flavor tagged channel, a light-flavor tagged channel, and an untagged channel. We measure σZW/ZZ = 2.5+2.0-1.0 pb, which is consistent with the SM cross section of 5.1 pb. We establish an upper limit on the cross section of σZW/ZZ

Both the D0 and CDF experiments at Fermilab Tevatron collider at √s = 1.8 TeV have accumulated over 50pb−1 of data. Each experiment collected more than 50,000 W → l +v and 5000 Z → l + {bar l} candidates for each lepton species (e and [mu]). Using this large data sample of W and Z candidates, the two experiments are actively testing perturbative QCD predictions. Among the studies that are in progress, preliminary results of W/Z+jets characteristics, multiplicity distributions of associated jets, and a study on the determination of the strong coupling constant using the ratio of the W+1 jet to W + 0 jet cross sections are presented.

Observing WZ/ZZ production at the Tevatron in a final state with a lepton, missing transverse energy and jets is extremely difficult because of the low signal rate and the huge background. In an attempt to increase the acceptance we study the sample where three high-energy jets are reconstructed, where about 1/3 of the diboson signal events are expected to end. Rather than choosing the two E{sub T}-leading jets to detect a Z signal, we make use of the information carried by all jets. To qualify the potential of our method, we estimate the probability of observing an inclusive diboson signal at the three standard deviations level (P{sub 3{sigma}}) to be about four times larger than when using the two leading jets only. Aiming at applying the method to the search for the exclusive WZ/ZZ → l?q{bar q} channel in the three jets sample, we analyzed separately the sample with at least one b-tagged jet and the sample with no tags. In WZ/ZZ → l?b{bar b} search, we observe a modest improvement in sensitivity over the option of building the Z-mass from the two leading jets in E{sub T}. Studies for improving the method further are on-going.

We present a measurement of the production cross section for ZW and ZZ boson pairs in final states with a pair of charged leptons, from the decay of a Z boson, and at least two jets, from the decay of a W or Z boson, using the full sample of proton-antiproton collisions recorded with the CDF II detector at the Tevatron, corresponding to 8.9 fb(̂-1) of integrated luminosity. We increase the sensitivity to vector boson decays into pairs of quarks using a neural network discriminant that exploits the differences between the spatial spread of energy depositions and charged-particle momenta contained within the jet of particles originating from quarks and gluons. Additionally, we employ new jet energy corrections to Monte Carlo simulations that account for differences in the observed energy scales for quark and gluon jets. The number of signal events is extracted through a simultaneous fit to the dijet mass spectrum in three classes of events: events likely to contain jets with a heavy-quark decay, events likely to contain jets originating from light quarks, and events that fail these identification criteria. We determine the production cross section to be 2.5 +2.0 -1.0 pb (

We present the first evidence of WW+WZ production with lepton+jets final states at a hadron collider. The data correspond to 1.07 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider in proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV. The observed cross section for WW+WZ production is 20.2 +/- 4.5 pb, consistent with the SM prediction of 16.1 +/- 0.9 pb. The probability for background fluctuations to produce an excess equal to or larger than that observed is estimated to be 5.4e-6, corresponding to a significance of 4.4 standard deviations.