Paper detail

Background dependence of dimuon asymmetry in $\bar p p$ interactions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV

The D0 Collaboration has reported an anomalous charge asymmetry in the production of same-sign muon pairs at the Fermilab Tevatron. The magnitude of this effect depends on the subtraction of several backgrounds, the most notable of which is due to kaons being misidentified as muons either through decays in flight or punch-through. The present authors suggested a check on such backgrounds consisting of a tight restriction on the muon impact parameter $b$, to confirm that this excess was indeed due to $B_{(s)}$ meson decays. The D0 Collaboration has performed a related check applying transverse impact parameter (IP) restrictions, whose implications are discussed. We study background asymmetry predictions for events involving two muons with IP bounds which are complementary to each other. These predictions may be used in future measurements of the net charge asymmetry from $B_{(s)}$ decays.