Precision measurement of the top quark mass in the lepton + jets channel using a matrix element method with Quasi-Monte Carlo integration

This thesis presents a measurement of the top quark mass obtained from p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron using the CDF II detector. The measurement uses a matrix element integration method to calculate a t{bar t} likelihood, employing a Quasi-Monte Carlo integration, which enables us to take into account effects due to finite detector angular resolution and quark mass effects. We calculate a t{bar t} likelihood as a 2-D function of the top pole mass m{sub t} and {Delta}{sub JES}, where {Delta}{sub JES} parameterizes the uncertainty in our knowledge of the jet energy scale; it is a shift applied to all jet energies in units of the jet-dependent systematic error. By introducing {Delta}{sub JES} into the likelihood, we can use the information contained in W boson decays to constrain {Delta}{sub JES} and reduce error due to this uncertainty. We use a neural network discriminant to identify events likely to be background, and apply a cut on the peak value of individual event likelihoods to reduce the effect of badly reconstructed events. This measurement uses a total of 4.3 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity, requiring events with a lepton, large E{sub T}, and exactly four high-energy jets in the pseudorapidity range |{eta}| < 2.0, of which at least one must be tagged as coming from a b quark. In total, we observe 738 events before and 630 events after applying the likelihood cut, and measure m{sub t} = 172.6 {+-} 0.9 (stat.) {+-} 0.7 (JES) {+-} 1.1 (syst.) GeV/c{sup 2}, or m{sub t} = 172.6 {+-} 1.6 (tot.) GeV/c{sup 2}