Measurement of the W and top mass at the Tevatron: Results and perspectives

The measurements of the mass of the W boson (MW) and of the top quark (Mt) are important for three reasons: (i) these masses represent fundamental parameters of the Standard Model; (ii) they determine the coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson, the coupling being proportional to Mt2/MW2; and (iii) radiative corrections relate the masses of the W, top quark and the Higgs boson: an accurate measurement of MW and Mt would provide a constraint on the Higgs mass (MH). We present here the measurements obtained by the CDF and D0 collaborations corresponding to the so-called Run I of data-taking (1992-95, ∼ 100 pb-1 each) at the Tevatron (p| p collisions, √s = 1.8 TeV). In addition we report on the improvements expected for these measurements in the current run (so-called Run IIa) which, having just started (March 2001), is expected to collect about 2 fb-1 by the year 2004