Top quark physics at hadron colliders

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.

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

Top quark pair production and decay at a polarized photon collider

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.

Particle physics deals with the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions. The vast number of subatomic particles can be reduced to twelve fundamental fermions, which interact by the exchange of spin-1 particles as described in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. The SM provides the best description of the subatomic world to date, despite the fact it does not include gravitation. Following the relation Λ = h/p, where h is Planck's constant, for the examination of physics at subatomic scales with size Λ probes with high momenta p are necessary. These high energies are accessible through particle colliders. Here, particles are accelerated and brought to collision at interaction points at which detectors are installed to record these particle collisions. Until the anticipated start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Tevatron collider at Fermilab near Chicago is the highest energy collider operating in the world, colliding protons and anti-protons at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 1.96 TeV. Its two interaction points are covered by the multi purpose particle detectors D0 and CDF. During the first data-taking period, known as Run I, the Tevatron operated at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV. This run period lasted from 1992 to 1996. During this period, the long-predicted top quark was discovered. From 1996 and 2001, the accelerator was upgraded to deliver higher instantaneous luminosities at its current center-of-mass energy. At the same time, the experiments were upgraded to take full advantage of the upgraded accelerator complex. The Tevatron is currently the only accelerator in the world with a sufficient energy to produce top quarks. Studying top quark production, decay and properties is an important part of the D0 and CDF physics programs. Because of its large mass, the top quark is a unique probe of the Standard Model, and an interesting environment to search for new physics. In this thesis, a measurement of the production cross-section of top quark pairs decaying to two muons is presented. In addition, a Monte Carlo study of the top quark spin correlation measurement was carried out. This thesis is laid out as follows: chapter two gives a short overview over the Standard Model of particle physics and the theoretical aspects of unpolarized and polarized top quark production and decay, chapter three describes the accelerator complex and the D0 experiment whose data is used in this analysis. The Reconstruction of events recorded with the D0 detector is explained in chapter four and the data and Monte Carlo samples used are presented in chapter five. Finally, the cross-section measurement is described in chapter six and the Monte Carlo study of top quark spin correlations in chapter seven.

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a mature option for a future electron-positron collider operating at centre-of-mass energies of up to 3 TeV. CLIC will be built and operated in a staged approach with three centre-of-mass energy stages currently assumed to be 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV. This contribution discusses the prospects for precision measurements of top-quark production and properties at CLIC. Based on a dedicated centre-of-mass energy scan around the top-quark pair production threshold, the top-quark mass can be determined with a precision of about 50 MeV in a theoretically well-defined manner. Other approaches to extract the top-quark mass at the first stage of CLIC make use of ISR photons or the direct reconstruction of the top quarks. The large number of top-quark pairs produced also allows competitive searches for Flavour Changing Neutral Current (FCNC) top-quark decays to charm quarks. At the high-energy stages of CLIC the top Yukawa coupling and CP properties in the ttH coupling can be studied, as well as the top-quark pair production through the vector-boson fusion. Expected limits on new physics contributions described in terms of Effective Field Theory (EFT) operator coefficients are presented, showing sensitivity of CLIC to mass scales up to 100 TeV.

We present a summary of the measurements of the top quark production and decay properties performed by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV using 1 fb-1 of data. We discuss the first simultaneous measurement of the ratio of branching fractions, R=B(t-> Wb)/B(t->Wq), with q being a d, s, or b quark, and the top quark pair production cross section, the first model-independent measurement of the helicity of W bosons produced in the top quark decays, and the first measurement of the integrated forward-backward charge asymmetry in the production of top quark pairs.

The top quark is the heaviest known fundamental particle. As it is the only quark that decays before it hadronizes, it allows us to probe the properties of bare quarks at the Large Hadron Collider. Highlights of a few recent precision measurements by the ATLAS Collaboration of the top quark using 13 TeV and 8 TeV collision data will be presented: top-quark pair and single top production cross sections including differential distributions will be presented alongside measurements of top-quark properties, including results using boosted top quarks, probe our understanding of top-quark production in the TeV regime. Measurements of the top-quark mass and searches for rare top quark decays are also presented.

A measurement of the jet mass distribution in hadronic decays of Lorentz-boosted top quarks is presented. The measurement is performed in the lepton + jets channel of top quark pair production (hbox {t}overline{hbox {t}}) events, where the lepton is an electron or muon. The products of the hadronic top quark decay are reconstructed using a single large-radius jet with transverse momentum greater than 400,text {Ge}hspace{-.08em}text {V}. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138,text {fb}^{-1}. The differential hbox {t}overline{hbox {t}} production cross section as a function of the jet mass is unfolded to the particle level and is used to extract the top quark mass. The jet mass scale is calibrated using the hadronic W boson decay within the large-radius jet. The uncertainties in the modelling of the final state radiation are reduced by studying angular correlations in the jet substructure. These developments lead to a significant increase in precision, and a top quark mass of 173.06 pm 0.84,text {Ge}hspace{-.08em}text {V} .

Top quark pair production and decay at hadron colliders: Predictions at NLO QCD including spin correlations

In this paper, we consider the processes of single top-quark production in association with dark matter particles through the t-channel in simplified models with scalar and pseudoscalar mediators. Within the framework of these models, we analyze the angular correlations that arise in the top quark production process in association with dark matter, comparing them with the production of a top quark in the Standard Model. We consider angular correlations of kinematic variables, which define admissible regions in momentum space and can be used experimentally to distinguish between the fraction of the total momentum carried away by the scalar or pseudoscalar mediator. We demonstrate that scalar mediator significantly changes the rest frame of the well-known angular correlation observable and changes the distributions. In this case, this variable provides clear separation between the SM and DM contribution and can be used to increase the sensitivity of future DM analyses.

Measuring the properties of the top quark has been proven to be a reliable test of the Standard Model of particle physics (SM). At the Large Hadron Collider, top quark physics has entered the era of precision measurements which allows to measure new top quark properties and to repeat other top quark properties measurements with improved precision. This article presents the measurements of top quark spin observables, charge and CP asymmetries, $W$ boson polarisation from $t\bar{t}$ events and the cross section of $t\bar{t}$ pairs produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson. All these measurements are using data from proton-proton collisions taken with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The spin correlation $C(n,n)$ is measured for the first time and direct CP violation is measured directly for the first time in the context of $b$-hadron decays. The measured value of the CP mixing asymmetry $A^b_\text{mix}$ presented here cannot disprove the deviation in the dimuon asymmetry seen by the D0 experiment. The $W$ boson polarisation measurement from $t\bar{t}$ events is the most precise one to date and is used to constrain anomalous couplings at the $Wtb$ vertex. All results are in agreement with the SM predictions.

Until now, the top quark has only been observed produced in pairs, by the strong force. According to the standard model, it can also be produced singly, via an electroweak interaction. Top quarks produced this way provide powerful ways to test the charged-current electroweak interactions of the top quark, to measure |Vtb|, and to search for physics beyond the standard model. This thesis describes the application of the matrix element analysis technique to the search for single top quark production with the D0 detector using 0.9 fb-1 of Run II data. From a comparison of the matrix element discriminants between data and the background model, assuming a Standard Model s-channel to t-channel cross section ratio of σs/σt = 0.44, we measure the single top quark production cross section: σ(p$\bar{p}$ → tb + X, tqb + X) = 4.8$-1.4\atop{+1.6}$ pb. This result has a p-value of 0.08%, corresponding to a 3.2 standard deviation Gaussian equivalent significance.

We study the effects of dimension-six operators contributing to the $\mathrm{gt}\overline{t}$ vertex in top quark pair production at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. We derive both the limits from run 1 data and the potential bounds from future runs (runs 2 and 3). Although the current constraints are not very strong, the future runs are quite effective in probing these operators. We investigate the possibility of disentangling different operators with the $t\overline{t}$ invariant mass distribution and the top quark polarization asymmetry. We also study the effects of a different set of operators contributing to single top quark production via the $\mathrm{Wt}\overline{b}$ coupling. We derive the current and potential future bounds on these anomalous operators and find that the upgraded Fermilab Tevatron collider can improve the existing constraints from ${R}_{b}$ for one of the operators.

We investigate the prospects for discovering a top quark decaying into one light Higgs boson along with a charm quark in top quark pair production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A general two Higgs doublet model is adopted to study the signature of flavor changing neutral Higgs decay t→cϕ0, where ϕ0 could be CP-even (H0) or CP-odd (A0). The dominant physics background is evaluated with realistic acceptance cuts as well as tagging and mistagging efficiencies. For a reasonably large top–charm–Higgs coupling (λtc/λt≳0.09), the abundance of signal events and the reduction in physics background allow us to establish a 5σ signal for Mϕ∼125 GeV at the LHC with a center of mass energy (s) of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. The discovery potential will be greatly enhanced with the full energy of s=14 TeV.