CERN-THESIS-2012-153 26/07/2012 - CERN Document Server
CERN-THESIS-2012-153 26/07/2012 - CERN Document Server
CERN-THESIS-2012-153 26/07/2012 - CERN Document Server
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
2.3 Top Quark<br />
The large mass of the top quark makes it a key element in the quest for deviations from the SM predictions.<br />
In particular, because of its large mass, it plays a larger role in radiative corrections than do lighter fermions.<br />
The large mass might also imply a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking, because the Higgs coupling<br />
to fermions is proportional to their mass. Several properties of the top quark have already been measured. So<br />
far, all of them in good agreement with the SM expectations. One important measurement is, as expected,<br />
the top quark mass. Figure 2.3 summarizes the mass measurements performed by both the ATLAS and the<br />
CMS experiments. The current best measurement of the mass is still held by the Tevatron 2011 average,<br />
mt = 173.2 ± 0.6(stat.) ± 0.8(syst.) [2].<br />
7<br />
1<br />
1 1<br />
ATLAS mtop<br />
summary July <strong>2012</strong>, L = 35 pb 4.7 fb (*Preliminary)<br />
int<br />
ATLAS 2010, l+jets*<br />
1<br />
CONF2011033, L = 35 pb<br />
int<br />
ATLAS 2011, l+jets<br />
1<br />
Eur. Phys. J. C72 (<strong>2012</strong>) 2046, L = 1.04 fb<br />
int<br />
ATLAS 2011, all jets*<br />
1<br />
CONF<strong>2012</strong>030, L = 2.05 fb<br />
int<br />
ATLAS 2011, dilepton*<br />
1<br />
CONF<strong>2012</strong>082, L = 4.7 fb<br />
int<br />
Tevatron Average July 2011<br />
173.2 ± 0.6 ± 0.8<br />
169.3 ± 4.0 ± 4.9<br />
174.5 ± 0.6 ± 2.3<br />
174.9 ± 2.1 ± 3.8<br />
175.2 ± 1.6 ± 3.0<br />
± (stat.) ± (syst.)<br />
ATLAS Preliminary<br />
150 160 170 180 190<br />
mtop<br />
[GeV]<br />
(a) (b)<br />
Figure 2.3: Summary of measurements of the top quark mass by the (a)ATLAS and the (b) CMS experiment.<br />
In both cases, 2011 pp collision data at a center of mass energy of √ s = 7 TeV were used.<br />
2.3.1 t¯t Production and Decay<br />
The LHC has been long advertised as a “top quark factory” due to the abundant production of this quark.<br />
More than 150,000 top pairs are expected in 1 fb −1 of data at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. 3 Unlike the<br />
Tevatron, at the LHC these top quark pairs are produced mainly through gluon fusion diagrams gg → t¯t<br />
(∼ 90% of the time in the LHC), and secondly through quark annihilation q¯q → t¯t (∼ 85% of the time in<br />
3 More than 200,000 top pairs at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the same integrated luminosity.<br />
14