Evidence for Spin correlation in tt̄ production

We present a measurement of the ratio of events with correlated t and t̄ spins to the total number of tt̄ events. This ratio f is evaluated using a matrix-element-based approach in 729 tt̄ candidate events with a single lepton (electron or muon) and at least four jets. The analyzed pp̄ collisions data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.3fb -1 and were collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider operating at a center-of-mass energy √s=1.96TeV. Combining this result with a recent measurement of f in dileptonic final states, we find f in agreement with the standard model. In addition, the combination provides evidence for the presence of spin correlation in tt̄ events with a significance of more than 3 standard deviations. © 2012 American Physical Society.