Search for s-channel single top-quark production in proton–proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

This Letter presents a search at the LHC for s-channel single top-quark production in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8TeV. The analyzeddata set was recorded by the ATLAS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3fb−1. Selected events contain one charged lepton, large missing transverse momentum and exactly two b-tagged jets. A multivariate event classifier based on boosted decision trees is developed to discriminate s-channel single top-quark events from the main background contributions. The signal extraction is based on a binned maximum-likelihood fit of the output classifier distribution. The analysis leads to an upper limit on the s-channel single top-quark production cross-section of 14.6pb at the 95% confidence level. The fit gives a cross-section of σs=5.0 ±4.3pb, consistent with the Standard Model expectation.