Measurement of the top quark mass

This dissertation describes the measurement of the top quark mass m{sub t} using events recorded during a 125 pb{sup -1} exposure of the D0 detector to {radical}s=1.8 TeV {anti p}p collisions. Six events consistent with the hypothesis t{anti t} {yields} bW{sup +}, {anti b}W{sup -} {yields} b{anti l}{nu}, {anti b}l{anti {nu}} form the dilepton sample. The kinematics of such events may be reconstructed for any assumed mt, and the likelihood of each such solution evaluated. A measurement of m{sub t} based on these relative solution likelihoods gives m{sub t} = 169.9 {+-} 14.8 (stat.) {+-} 3. 8 (syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}. A 2C kinematic fit is performed on a sample of 77 events consistent with t{anti t} {yields} bW{sup +}, {anti b}W{sup -} {yields} b{anti l}{nu}, {anti b}q{anti q} , and this, in combination with an estimate on the likelihood that each event is top, yields m{sub t} = 173.3 {+-} 5.6 (stat.) {+-} 6.2 (syst.) GeV/c{sup 2} . A combination of these two measurements gives m{sub t} = 173.1 {+-} 5.2 (stat.) {+-} 5.7 (syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}