First Direct Bound on the Total Width of the Top Quark in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

Abstract

We present the first direct experimental bound on the total decay width of the top quark using 955pb^-1 of the Tevatron's ppbar collisions recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We identify 253 top-antitop pair candidate events. The distribution of reconstructed top quark mass from these events is fitted to templates representing different values of the top quark width. Using a confidence interval based on likelihood ratio ordering, we extract an upper limit at 95% C.L. of Gamma_t <13.1 GeV for an assumed top quark mass of 175 GeV/c^2.