We present a b-bbar jet cross section measurement based on about 260 pb-1 of data, collected by CDF Run II until September 2004. The analysis strongly relies on the CDF detector good tracking capabilities both at trigger level, as data is selected requiring two displaced tracks at Level 2, and offline, since b-tagging is performed reconstructing secondary vertices inside the jet. Jets are reconstructed using a cone algorithm. The cross section is measured in the central region (|eta|< 1.2) as a function of leading jet Et, b-bbar pair invariant mass and azimuthal angle between the two jets. Results are corrected to the hadron level and compared to Leading Order Monte Carlos (Pythia and Herwig) as well as MC@NLO predictions.

The events are selected using a trigger, specifically designed to select events rich in heavy flavour, which requires two high transverse energy jets (Et>20 GeV) associated to two displaced tracks (impact parameter |d0|>120 μm) reconstructed using the SVT at Level 2. The presence of two such tracks associated to two jets requires a careful study on how the particular trigger selection shapes the events. Offline, jets are tagged using the 2 dimensional SecVtx algorithm: the secondary vertex inside the jet is reconstructed and the jet is positively tagged if the distance of the secondary vertex to the primary vertex of the interaction is positive with respect to the jet axis.

We define "SVT b-tagged" jets in such a way that events with two such objects always pass the trigger. The advantage of such a choice is that it allows to reasonably neglect the problem of calculating the trigger efficiency, measuring instead trigger and b-tagging efficiency in one single step in the Monte Carlo and then rescale it to data. The main requirements that define the "SVT b-tagged" jet are:

The efficiency for requiring two SVT b-tagged jets in the event is calculated in Pythia MonteCarlo and corrected for the scale factor of 1.029 +/- 0.009 (stat) +/- 0.034 (syst). The result is shown in the figures below:

The invariant mass of the tracks associated to the secondary vertex can be used to separate the contribution due to heavy flavour jets from light quark and gluon jets. A full reconstruction of the invariant mass would allow a precise separation of the b-jet sample from the background but the presence of neutral particles and the ambiguities in associating tracks to primary or secondary verices that are due to finite detector resolution contribute in limiting the reconstruction of the original b mass. Nevertheless the shape of the mass distribution is different according to the flavour of the jet and mass templates can be built in the MonteCarlo and used to fit the data.

The templates are chosen to be the sum of the two SVT b-tagged jets secondary vertex masses. A two components fit is performed, using a "signal" template describing the b-bbar case and a "background" template merging all the other possible contributions (cc, bc, cl, etc..) whose relative weight is taken from MonteCarlo (systematic uncertainties being assigned to this assumption).

The picture below shows the fit over the full jet Et range (eps):

Sources of systematic uncertainties are related to: luminosity (a standard 6% value is applied); jet energy corrections (the highest contribution, around 13-20%); SVT b-tagging efficiency and scale factor; b-jet purity determination (second highest contribution related to secondary vertex mass templates sensitivity to tracking inefficiency inside jets).

The differential cross section unfolded to the hadron level is shown in the figures below as a function of the leading jet Et, the di-jet invariant mass and the azimuth distance between the two jets. The measurement is compared to Leading Order Monte Carlos (Pythia Tune A and Herwig) and to Next-to-Leading Order predictions from MC@NLO. The MC@NLO sample is generated using a minimum quark pt of 10 GeV in |eta|<1.75, CTEQ6.1M PDFs, and μR = μF = sqrt(pt^2 + m^2). MC@NLO and Herwig samples are produced with or without Jimmy to simulate multiple parton interactions. The total cross is reported in the table at the end.

*** Differential cross section plots: Data is compared to Pythia Tune A, Herwig + Jimmy and MC@NLO + Jimmy

*** Data / MC ratio as a function of the di-jet azymuth distance (eps):

*** Di-jet azymuth distance: additionnal comparisons

*** Total cross section: Data is compared to Pythia (Tune A), MC@NLO + Jimmy and Herwig + Jimmy predictions