Top quark production in the forward region in proton-proton collisions is observed for the first time. The W + b final state with W -> mu nu is reconstructed using muons with a transverse momentum, p(T), larger than 25 GeV in the pseudorapidity range 2.0 < eta < 4.5. The b jets are required to have 50 < p(T) < 100 GeV and 2.2 < eta < 4.2, while the transverse component of the sum of the muon and b-jet momenta must satisfy p(T) > 20 GeV. The results are based on data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.0 and 2.0 fb(-1) collected at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV by LHCb. The inclusive top quark production cross sections in the fiducial region are sigma(top)[7 TeV] = 239 +/- 53(stat) +/- 33(syst) +/- 24(theory) fb; sigma(top)[8 TeV ] = 289 +/- 43(stat) +/- 40(syst) +/- 29(theory) fb: These results, along with the observed differential yields and charge asymmetries, are in agreement with next-to-leading order standard model predictions.
Jian Wang, Matthias Finger, Qian Wang, Yiming Li, João Miguel das Neves Duarte, Matthias Wolf, Varun Sharma, Yi Zhang, Tian Cheng, Yixing Chen, Alexis Kalogeropoulos, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Hua Zhang, Siyuan Wang, Xin Chen, Michele Bianco, Sebastiana Gianì, Sun Hee Kim, Rakesh Chawla, Jan Steggemann, Konstantin Androsov, Junqiu Liu, Anna Mascellani, Federica Legger, Matteo Galli, Gabriele Grosso
Jian Wang, Matthias Finger, Qian Wang, Yiming Li, João Miguel das Neves Duarte, Matthias Wolf, Varun Sharma, Yi Zhang, Tian Cheng, Yixing Chen, Alexis Kalogeropoulos, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Hua Zhang, Siyuan Wang, Xin Chen, Michele Bianco, Sebastiana Gianì, Sun Hee Kim, Rakesh Chawla, Jan Steggemann, Konstantin Androsov, Anna Mascellani, Federica Legger, Matteo Galli, Gabriele Grosso
Jian Wang, Matthias Finger, Qian Wang, Yiming Li, João Miguel das Neves Duarte, Matthias Wolf, Varun Sharma, Yi Zhang, Tian Cheng, Yixing Chen, Alexis Kalogeropoulos, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Hua Zhang, Siyuan Wang, Xin Chen, Michele Bianco, Sebastiana Gianì, Sun Hee Kim, Rakesh Chawla, Jan Steggemann, Konstantin Androsov, Junqiu Liu, Anna Mascellani, Federica Legger, Matteo Galli, Gabriele Grosso