Search for Hadronic Decays of W and Z Bosons in Photon Events in ppbar Collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 GeV

Abstract

We report on a search for the process $p\bar{p}\to \gamma+W/Z$ with $W/Z\to q\bar{q}$ in events containing two jets and a photon at the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV, using 184 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the CDF II detector. A neural network event selection has been developed to optimize the rejection of the large QCD production background; it is shown that this method gives a significant improvement in both signal-to-noise ratio and signal sensitivity, as compared with an event selection based on conventional cuts. An upper limit is presented for the $\gamma+W/Z$ production cross section with the $W$ and $Z$ decaying hadronically.