CAREER: A Precision Measurement of the Top Quark Mass

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This is a proposal to conduct research in experimental high energy physics, which seeks to elucidate the fundamental interactions of matter. Its ultimate goal is to describe all the fundamental interactions by a single unified theory. However, at this time we can describe only the electromagnetic and weak interactions with a fundamental theory, which when coupled with a heuristic theory of the strong interactions called Quantum Chromodynamics, constitute the so-called Standard Model of Quarks and Leptons. The properties of the recently discovered top quark - especially its large mass - are parameters that such theories have to explain. The Tevatron at Fermilab is the only accelerator currently running with enough energy to produce top quarks in the laboratory. This proposal is to use the data from the upcoming Tevatron Run II to perform a precision measurement of the top quark mass. The precision of this measurement is now limited by the systematic uncertainty in the jet energy scale calibration. To reduce this uncertainty, the work proposed is to use the decay Z b b-bar to calibrate the jet energy scale. This involves development of reconstruction algorithms to identify b-quark jets and the design and construction of a silicon track trigger processor that will allow triggering on events with b quarks.