Search for anomalous production of photon + jets + missing transverse energy in proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV using the CDF II detector.

Abstract

A model-independent signature-based search for physics beyond the Standard Model is performed in the photon + jets + missing transverse energy channel in proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV using the CDF II detector. Events with a photon + jets are predicted by the Standard Model and also by many theoretical models beyond the Standard Model. In the Standard Model, the main mechanisms for photon + jets production include quark-antiquark annihilation and quark-gluon scattering. No intrinsic missing transverse energy is present in any of these Standard Model processes. In this search, photon + ≥1 jet and photon + ≥2 jet events are analyzed with and without a minimum requirement on the missing transverse energy. Numerous mass distributions and kinematic distributions are studied and no significant excess over the background prediction is found. All results indicate good agreement with expectations of the Standard Model.