Search for the top quark in the reaction<i>p¯p→</i>electron+jets at<i>√s =1.8</i>TeV

A search for the top quark in p\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV using the Collider Detector at Fermilab is described. A study of events selected by requiring an energetic electron, missing transverse energy, and two or more jets excludes at 95% confidence level the standard-model production and decay of tt\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{} pairs if the top-quark mass is between 40 and 77 GeV/${c}^{2}$. The observed electron + multijet data are consistent with W-boson production.