| This dissertation describes the measurement of the top pair production cross section, using data from proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, with 2.7 +/- 0.2 fb-1 of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab.;Background contributions are measured concurrently with the top cross section in the b-tagged lepton-plus-jets sample using a kinematic fit, which simultaneously determines the cross sections and normalizations of tt¯, W + jets, QCD, and electroweak processes. This is the first application of a procedure of this kind.;The top cross section is measured to be sigmatt¯ = 7.64 +/- 0.57(stat + syst) +/- 0.45(lumi) pb and the Monte Carlo simulation scale factors KWbb¯ = 1.57 +/- 0.25, KWcc¯ = 0.94 +/- 0.79, KWc = 1.9 +/- 0.3, and K Wqq¯ = 1.1 +/- 0.3. These results are consistent with existing measurements using other procedures. More data will reduce the systematic uncertainties and will lead to the most precise of any single analysis to date. |
