Observation of diboson processes at hadron colliders is an important milestone on the road to discovery or exclusion of the standard model Higgs boson. Since the decay processes happen to be closely related, methods, tools, and insights obtained through the more common diboson decays can be incorporated into low-mass standard model Higgs searches. The combined WW + WZ + ZZ diboson cross section has been measured at the Tevatron in hadronic decay modes. In this thesis we take this one step closer to the Higgs by measuring just the WZ + ZZ cross section, exploiting a novel arti cial neural network based b-jet tagger to separate the WW background. The number of signal events is extracted from data events with large ET using a simultaneous t in events with and without two jets consistent with B hadron decays. Using 5:2 fb-1 of data from the CDF II detector, we measure a cross section of (p $\bar{p}$ 2!WZ, ZZ) = 5:8+3.6 -3.0 pb, in agreement with the standard model.

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 (ET). 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 2!b$\bar{b}$ and W=Z 2!q$\bar{p'}$0 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 [sigma]ZW/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 [sigma]ZW/ZZ

This will be a required acquisition text for academic libraries. More than ten years after its discovery, still relatively little is known about the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle. This extensive survey summarizes and reviews top-quark physics based on the precision measurements at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, as well as examining in detail the sensitivity of these experiments to new physics. Finally, the author provides an overview of top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider.

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

High Energy Physics 99 contains the 18 invited plenary presentations and 250 contributions to parallel sessions presented at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics. The book provides a comprehensive survey of the latest developments in high energy physics. Topics discussed include hard high energy, structure functions, soft interactions, heavy flavor, the standard model, hadron spectroscopy, neutrino masses, particle astrophysics, field theory, and detector development.