Measurement of the tt̄ production cross section in pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV

We present a measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in pp collisions at s=1.96TeV using 318pb-1 of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We select tt decays into the final states eν+jets and μν+jets, in which at least one b quark from the t-quark decays is identified using a secondary vertex-finding algorithm. Assuming a top quark mass of 178GeV/c2, we measure a cross section of 8.7±0.9(stat)-0. 9+1.1(syst)pb. We also report the first observation of tt with significance greater than 5σ in the subsample in which both b quarks are identified, corresponding to a cross section of 10.1-1.4+1.6(stat)-1.3+2.0(syst) pb. © 2006 The American Physical Society.