Angular correlations in associated top-quark and dark matter production at Large Hadron Collider

A search is performed for dark matter (DM) produced in association with a single top quark or a pair of top quarks using the data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to 138 fb −1 of integrated luminosity. An excess of events with a large imbalance of transverse momentum is searched for across 0, 1 and 2 lepton final states. Novel multivariate techniques are used to take advantage of the differences in kinematic properties between the two DM production mechanisms. No significant deviations with respect to the standard model predictions are observed. The results are interpreted considering a simplified model in which the mediator is either a scalar or pseudoscalar particle and couples to top quarks and to DM fermions. Axion-like particles that are coupled to top quarks and DM fermions are also considered. Expected exclusion limits of 410 and 380 GeV for scalar and pseudoscalar mediator masses, respectively, are set at the 95% confidence level. A DM particle mass of 1 GeV is assumed, with mediator couplings to fermions and DM particles set to unity. A small signal-like excess is observed in data, with the largest local significance observed to be 1.9 standard deviations for the 150 GeV pseudoscalar mediator hypothesis. Because of this excess, mediator masses are only excluded below 310 (320) GeV for the scalar (pseudoscalar) mediator. The results are also translated into model-independent 95% confidence level upper limits on the visible cross section of DM production in association with top quarks, ranging from 1 pb to 0.02 pb.

The inclusive cross section for the production of a single top quark in association with a W boson is measured using 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at s=13 TeV. Events containing two charged leptons and at least one jet identified as originating from a b-quark are selected. A multivariate discriminant is constructed to separate the tW signal from the tt¯ background. The cross section is extracted using a profile likelihood fit to the signal and control regions and it is measured to be σtW=75−14+15 pb, in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction. The measured cross section is used to extract a value for the left-handed form factor at the Wtb vertex times the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |fLVVtb| of 0.97±0.10. © 2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration 2024 CERN

We consider a fermionic dark matter (DM) particle in renormalizable Standard Model (SM) gauge interactions in a simple t-channel model. The DM particle interactions with SM fermions is through the exchange of scalar and vector mediators which carry colour or lepton number. In the case of coloured mediators considered in this study, we find that if the DM is thermally produced and accounts for the observed relic density almost the entire parameter space is ruled out by the direct detection observations. The bounds from the monojet plus missing energy searches at the Large Hadron Collider are less stringent in this case. In contrast for the case of Majorana DM, we obtain strong bounds from the monojet searches which rule out DM particles of mass less than about a few hundred GeV for both the scalar and vector mediators.

We present a search for Dark Matter (DM) particles production in the mono-\(W/Z(q\bar{q})\) channel using pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of \(\sqrt{s}\) = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 \(\mathrm{fb}^{-1}\), recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). No significant excess over the Standard Model (SM) prediction is observed. The search results are interpreted in terms of limits on invisible Higgs boson decays into DM particles, constraints on the parameter space of the simplified vector-mediator model and generic upper limits on the visible cross section for \(W/Z +\)DM production.

The top quark, discovered at the FERMILAB TEVATRON collider in 1995, is the heaviest known elementary particle. Today, ten years later, still relatively little is known about its properties. The strong and weak interactions of the top quark are not nearly as well studied as those of the other quarks and leptons. The strong interaction is most directly measured in top quark pair production. The weak interaction is measured in top quark decay and single top quark production, which remains thus far unobserved. The large top-quark mass of about 175 GeV/c2 suggests that it may play a special role in nature. It behaves differently from all other quarks due to its large mass and its correspondingly short lifetime. The top quark decays before it hadronises, passing its spin information on to its decay products. Therefore, it is possible to measure observables that depend on the top quark spin, providing a unique environment for tests of the Standard Model and for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. This report summarises the latest measurements and studies of top quark properties and rare decays from the TEVATRON in Run II.With more than 1fb−1 of luminosity delivered to each experiment, CDF and DØ, top quark physics at the TEVATRON is at a turning point from first studies to precision measurements with sensitivity to new physics. An outlook onto top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, planned to begin operation in the year 2007, is also given.KeywordsHiggs BosonLarge Hadron ColliderSystematic UncertaintyHadron ColliderIntersect Storage RingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

One burden of high energy physics data analysis is uncertainty within the measurement, both systematically and statistically. Even with sophisticated neural network techniques that are used to assist in high energy physics measurements, the resulting measurement may suffer from both types of uncertainties. Fortunately, most types of systematic uncertainties are based on knowledge from information such as theoretical assumptions, for which the range and behaviour are known. It has been proposed to mitigate such systematic uncertainties by using a new type of neural network called adversarial neural network (ANN) that would make the discriminator less sensitive to these uncertainties, but this has not yet been demonstrated in a real-life LHC analysis. This work investigates ANNs using as a benchmark the search for the production of four top quarks, an extremely rare physics process at the LHC and one of the important processes that can prove or disprove the Standard Model. The search for four top quarks in some cases is sensitive to large systematic uncertainties. The expected cross section upper limit for four top quark production is calculated using traditional neural networks and adversarial neural networks based on simulated proton-proton collisions within the Compact Muon Solenoid detector within Large Hadron Collider, and are compared to existing results. The improvement and further considerations to the search for rare processes at the LHC will be discussed.

The top quark is the heaviest known fundamental particle, with a mass of 172.0+0.9-1.3GeV. This is nearly twice the mass of the second heaviest known particle, the Z boson, and roughly the mass of a gold atom. Because of its unusually large mass, studying the top quark may provide insight into the Higgs mechanism and other beyond the standard model physics. Only two accelerators in the world are powerful enough to produce top quarks. The Tevatron, which first accelerated protons in 1983, has produced almost 400,000 top quarks, roughly half at each of its two detectors: DO and CDF. The LHC is a much newer accelerator which currently has accumulated about 0.5% as much data as the Tevatron. However, when running at full luminosity, the LHC is capable of producing a top quark about once every second and will quickly surpass the Tevatron as the leading producer of top quarks. This analysis uses data from the DØ detector at the Tevatron, which are described in chapter 3. Top quarks are produced most often in pairs of top and anti-top quarks through an interaction of the strong force. This production mode was first observed in 1995 at the Tevatron. However, top quarks can also be produced though an electroweak interaction, which produces just one top quark. This production mode was first observed at the Tevatron in 2008. Single top quark production can occur in different channels. In this analysis, a measurement of the cross section of the t-channel production mode is performed. This measurement uses 5.4 fb-1 of data and uses the technique of boosted decision trees in order to separate signal from background events. The t-channel cross section is measured to be: σ(p$\bar{p}$ → tqb + X) = 3.03+0.78-0.66 pb (0.0.1). Additional cross section measurements were also performed for the s-channel as well as the s + t-channel. The measurement of each one of these three cross sections was repeated three times using different techniques, and all three methods were combined into a 'super-method' which achieves the best performance. The details of these additional measurements are shown in appendix A.

Detailed measurements of t-channel single top-quark production are presented. They use 20.2 fb^{-1} of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the LHC. Total, fiducial and differential cross-sections are measured for both top-quark and top-antiquark production. The fiducial cross-section is measured with a precision of 5.8% (top quark) and 7.8% (top antiquark), respectively. The total cross-sections are measured to be sigma _{text {tot}} (tq) = 56.7^{+4.3}_{-3.8};mathrm{pb} for top-quark production and sigma _{text {tot}} (bar{t} q) = 32.9^{+3.0}_{-2.7};mathrm{pb} for top-antiquark production, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. In addition, the ratio of top-quark to top-antiquark production cross-sections is determined to be R_t=1.72 pm 0.09. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of both the top quark and the top antiquark are measured at both the parton and particle levels. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential cross-sections of the accompanying jet from the t-channel scattering are measured at particle level. All measurements are compared to various Monte Carlo predictions as well as to fixed-order QCD calculations where available.

Strong supersymmetric quantum effects on top quark production at the Fermilab Tevatron

We review the prospects for studies of the top quark at the LHC. Members of the working group who have contributed to this document are: A.Ahmadov, G.Azuelos, U.Baur, A.Belyaev, E.L.Berger, W.Bernreuther, E.E.Boos, M.Bosman, A.Brandenburg, R.Brock, M.Buice, N.Cartiglia, F.Cerutti, A.Cheplakov, L.Chikovani, M.Cobal-Grassmann, G.Corcella, F.del Aguila, T.Djobava, J.Dodd, V.Drollinger, A.Dubak, S.Frixione, D.Froidevaux, B.Gonzalez Pineiro, Y.P.Gouz, D.Green, P.Grenier, S.Heinemeyer, W.Hollik, V.Ilyin, C.Kao, A.Kharchilava, R. Kinnunen, V.V.Kukhtin, S.Kunori, L.La Rotonda, A.Lagatta, M.Lefebvre, K.Maeshima, G.Mahlon, S.Mc Grath, G.Medin, R.Mehdiyev, B.Mele, Z.Metreveli, D.O'Neil, L.H.Orr, D.Pallin, S.Parke, J.Parsons, D.Popovic, L.Reina, E.Richter-Was, T.G.Rizzo, D.Salihagic, M.Sapinski, M.H.Seymour, V.Simak, L.Simic, G.Skoro, S.R.Slabospitsky, J.Smolik, L.Sonnenschein, T.Stelzer, N.Stepanov, Z.Sullivan, T.Tait, I.Vichou, R.Vidal, D.Wackeroth, G.Weiglein, S.Willenbrock, W.Wu

Monojet searches are a powerful way to place model-independent constraints on effective operators coupling dark matter to the standard model. For operators generated by the exchange of a scalar mediator, however, couplings to light quarks are suppressed and the prospect of probing such interactions through the inclusive monojet channel at the LHC is limited. We propose dedicated searches, focusing on bottom and top quark final states, to constrain this class of operators. We show that a search in mono $b$-jets can significantly improve current limits. The mono-$b$ signal arises partly from direct production of $b$ quarks in association with dark matter, but the dominant component is from top quark pair production in the kinematic regime where one top is boosted. A search for tops plus missing energy can strengthen the bounds even more; in this case signal and background have very different missing energy distributions. We find an overall improvement by several orders of magnitude in the bound on the direct detection cross section for scalar or pseudoscalar couplings.

We show that the event excess observed by the IceCube collaboration at TeV--PeV energies, usually interpreted as evidence for astrophysical neutrinos, can be explained alternatively by the scattering of highly boosted dark matter particles. Specifically, we consider a scenario where a $\sim 4$ PeV scalar dark matter particle $\phi$ can decay to a much lighter dark fermion $\chi$, which in turn scatters off nuclei in the IceCube detector. Besides these events, which are exclusively shower-like, the model also predicts a secondary population of events at $\mathcal{O}(100 \text{TeV})$ originating from the 3-body decay $\phi \to \chi \bar\chi a$, where $a$ is a pseudoscalar which mediates dark matter--Standard Model interactions and whose decay products include neutrinos. This secondary population also includes track-like events, and both populations together provide an excellent fit to the IceCube data. We then argue that a relic abundance of light Dark Matter particles $\chi$, which may constitute a subdominant component of the Dark Matter in the Universe, can have exactly the right properties to explain the observed excess in GeV gamma rays from the galactic center region. Our boosted Dark Matter scenario also predicts fluxes of $\mathcal{O}(10)$ TeV positrons and $\mathcal{O}(100 \text{TeV})$ photons from 3-body cascade decays of the heavy Dark Matter particle $\phi$, and we show how these can be used to constrain parts of the viable parameter space of the model. Direct detection limits are weak due to the pseudoscalar couplings of $\chi$. Accelerator constraints on the pseudoscalar mediator $a$ lead to the conclusion that the preferred mass of $a$ is $\gtrsim 10$ GeV and that large coupling to $b$ quarks but suppressed or vanishing coupling to leptons are preferred.

Our goal is to measure precisely the properties of the heaviest subatomic particle ever discovered, the top quark. In the proton-proton collisions at the LHC, top quarks are produced copiously. The largest set of top quarks recorded by the CMS detector make it an ideal laboratory to measure properties such as its mass and the rate at which pair of top quarks are produced in association with energetic photons. Quantum electrodynamics, or QED, describes the emission of light by charged particles and is the most precise physics theory ever devised. Typically this means light emitted by electrons, but any charged particles will do, such as the top quark. Studies of the light-emitting properties of top quarks help us to refine our current theoretical predictions at the finest level, and provide additional tools to study in more detail the recently discovered Higgs boson particle. However, during this process, the studies may reveal interesting features not yet observed. Deviations from the standard predictions would be a strong sign of something entirely new. These new physics theories are motivated to answer the current big mysteries in the universe such as what is the nature of mass or what is dark matter. As the LHC increases the collision energy and its luminosity, the detectors need to be improved to cope with these high-luminosity scenarios. New sensors will be installed in the hadron calorimeter detectors along with new front and end electronics at the end of 2016. We are testing and calibrating the new front-end readout electronics that will allow us to have more options to reduce the noise on these detectors. In order to do this calibration, we have developed a system that can inject electric charge in the full range of the charge integrator chip, the QIE ASICs.

Top quark production near threshold

Axionlike particles (ALPs) emerge from spontaneously broken global symmetries in high energy extensions of the Standard Model (SM). This causes ALPs to be among the objectives of future experiments that intend to search for new physics beyond the SM. We discuss the reach of future pp collider FCC-hh in probing the ALP model parameters through top quark pair production associated with ALP (tt¯+ALP) in a model-independent approach. The search is performed in the semi-leptonic decay mode of tt¯ and the analysis is performed using a parametric simulation of the detector response for a projected integrated luminosity of 30ab−1. It is shown that tt¯+ALP production at the FCC-hh is a promising channel with significant sensitivity to probe the ALP coupling with gluons. The ALP coupling with gluons obtained from HL-LHC and other experiments is presented for comparison.