The mass of the W boson, a mediator of the weak force between elementary particles, is tightly constrained by the symmetries of the standard model of particle physics. The Higgs boson was the last missing component of the model. After observation of the Higgs boson, a measurement of the W boson mass provides a stringent test of the model. We measure the W boson mass, M W , using data corresponding to 8.8 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected in proton-antiproton collisions at a 1.96 tera–electron volt center-of-mass energy with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. A sample of approximately 4 million W boson candidates is used to obtain M W = 80 , 433.5 ± 6.4 stat ± 6.9 syst = 80 , 433.5 ± 9.4  MeV / c 2 , the precision of which exceeds that of all previous measurements combined (stat, statistical uncertainty; syst, systematic uncertainty; MeV, mega–electron volts; c , speed of light in a vacuum). This measurement is in significant tension with the standard model expectation.

Autonomous gravitational-wave searches -fully automated analyses of data that run without human intervention or assistance -are desirable for a number of reasons. They are necessary for the rapid identification of gravitational-wave burst candidates, which in turn will allow for followup observations by other observatories and the maximum exploitation of their scientific potential. A fully automated analysis would also circumvent the traditional "by hand" setup and tuning of burst searches that is both labourious and time consuming. We demonstrate a fully automated search with X-Pipeline, a software package for the coherent analysis of data from networks of interferometers for detecting bursts associated with GRBs and other astrophysical triggers. We discuss the methods X-Pipeline uses for automated running, including background estimation, efficiency studies, unbiased optimal tuning of search thresholds, and prediction of upper limits. These are all done automatically via Monte Carlo with multiple independent data samples, and without requiring human intervention. As a demonstration of the power of this approach, we apply X-Pipeline to LIGO data to compute the sensitivity to gravitational-wave emission associated with GRB 031108. We find that X-Pipeline is sensitive to signals approximately a factor of 2 weaker in amplitude than those detectable by the cross-correlation technique used in LIGO searches to date. We conclude with the status of running X-Pipeline as a fully autonomous, near real-time triggered burst search in the current LSC-Virgo Science Run.

We summarize and combine direct measurements of the mass of the W boson in √ s = 1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collision data collected by CDF and D0 experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Earlier measurements from CDF and D0 are combined with the two latest, more precise measurements: a CDF measurement in the electron and muon channels using data corresponding to 2.2 fb −1 of integrated luminosity, and a D0 measurement in the electron channel using data corresponding to 4.3 fb −1 of integrated luminosity. The resulting Tevatron average for the mass of the W boson is MW = 80 387 ± 16 MeV. Including measurements obtained in electron-positron collisions at LEP yields the most precise value of MW = 80 385 ± 15 MeV.

We have measured the W -boson mass MW using data corresponding to 2.2 fb −1 of integrated luminosity collected in pp collisions at √ s = 1.96 TeV with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Samples consisting of 470 126 W → eν candidates and 624 708 W → µν candidates yield the measurement MW = 80 387 ± 12stat ± 15syst = 80 387 ± 19 MeV/c 2 . This is the most precise measurement of the W -boson mass to date and significantly exceeds the precision of all previous measurements combined. PACS numbers: 13.38.Be, 14.70.Fm, 12.15.Ji, 13.85.Qk The mass of the W boson, M W , is an important parameter of the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Precise measurements of M W and of other electroweak observables significantly constrain the mass of the as-yet * Deceased † With visitors from

We present new measurements of the inclusive forward-backward tt production asymmetry, AFB, and its dependence on several properties of the tt system. The measurements are performed with the full Tevatron data set recorded with the CDF II detector during pp collisions at √ s = 1.96 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.4 fb −1 . We measure the asymmetry using the rapidity difference ∆y = yt − yt. Parton-level results are derived, yielding an inclusive asymmetry of 0.164 ± 0.047 (stat + syst). We establish an approximately linear dependence of AFB on the top-quark pair mass M tt and the rapidity difference |∆y| at detector and parton levels. Assuming the standard model, the probabilities to observe the measured values or larger for the detector-level dependencies are 7.4 × 10 −3 and 2.2 × 10 −3 for M tt and |∆y| respectively. Lastly, we study the dependence of the asymmetry on the transverse momentum of the tt system at the detector level. These results are consistent with previous lower-precision measurements and provide additional quantification of the functional dependencies of the asymmetry.