Before any kind of new physics discovery could be made at the LHC, a precise understanding and measurement of the Standard Model of particle physics' processes was necessary. The book provides an introduction to top quark production in the context of the Standard Model and presents two such precise measurements of the production of top quark pairs in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV that were observed with the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC. The presented measurements focus on events with one charged lepton, missing transverse energy and jets. Using novel and advanced analysis techniques as well as a good understanding of the detector, they constitute the most precise measurements of the quantity at that time.
Abstract : In the Standard Model, the top quark plays a unique role as the heaviest known fundamental particle and as a quark that decays before it is able to hadronize. Top quarks are expected to decay to a W-boson and a b-quark nearly 100% of the time. If the branching ratio of t → Wb is lower than one, the distribution of the number of b-tagged jets will shift to lower multiplicities. A simultaneous likelihood fit to the number of b-tagged jets distributions in the lepton+jets and dilepton channels is performed on 4.7 fb−1 of data collected by the ATLAS detector to extract both the branching ratio and the tt ̄ cross section. The branching ratio of t → Wb, R, is measured to be 1.06±0.11, which is consistent with the Standard Model value. This is the first measurement of the t → Wb branching ratio performed with the ATLAS detector using both the lepton+jets and dilepton channels at the LHC. The tt ̄ cross section is measured to be [special characters omitted] pb, which agrees with NNLO predictions.
In 2011, the ATLAS detector recorded an integrated luminosity of over 5 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass square root of s = 7 TeV. The first of two analyses is a test of the standard model and the world's most precise measurement of the top quark pair production cross section for final states which include a hadronically decaying tau lepton. The second analysis uses the same dataset to search for a charged Higgs boson, also resulting in the world's best limits for the search channel. In the cross section measurement, 2.1 fb−1 of ATLAS proton-proton collision data is used to measure the top quark pair production cross section in events containing an isolated electron or muon and a tau lepton decaying hadronically. After initial event requirements, the leading background comes from top quark pairs with jets faking tau leptons. A fit to a tau lepton identification variable is used to determine the signal yield. The measured cross section, [sigma][subscript{tt̄}] 186±13(stat.)±2019(syst.)±7(lumi.)pb, is in good agreement with the standard model prediction. Several extensions to the standard model predict the existence of at least one charged Higgs boson, H[superscript ±]. According to these extensions, the top quark can decay into a bottom quark and a light charged Higgs boson in addition to the standard model decay to a bottom quark and aW boson. In the second analysis, event yield ratios between different final states are measured using 4.6 fb−1 of ATLAS data. This is compared to simulation to search for a violation of lepton universality. This ratio-based method reduces the impact of systematic uncertainties in the analysis. No significant deviations from the standard model predictions are observed. With the assumption that the charged Higgs boson branching ratio to a tau lepton and a neutrino is 100%, upper limits in the range 3.2%-4.4% can be placed on the top quark to charged Higgs branching ratio for 90 less than or equal to m[subscript {H[superscript ±]}] less than or equal to 140 GeV. After combination with results from a search for charged Higgs bosons in tt̄ decays using the thad+jets final state, upper limits on this branching ratio can be set in the range 0.8%-3.4%, for 90 less than or equal to m[subscript {H[superscript ±]}] less than or equal to 140 GeV.
A search is performed for top-quark pairs (tt¯) produced together with a photon (?) with transverse energy greater than 20 GeV using a sample of tt¯ candidate events in final states with jets, missing transverse momentum, and one isolated electron or muon. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.59 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In total, 140 and 222 tt¯? candidate events are observed in the electron and muon channels, to be compared to the expectation of 79 ± 26 and 120 ± 39 non-tt¯? background events, respectively. The production of tt¯? events is observed with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations away from the null hypothesis. The tt¯? production cross section times the branching ratio (BR) of the single-lepton decay channel is measured in a fiducial kinematic region within the ATLAS acceptance. The measured value is ?fidtt¯? × BR = 63 ± 8(stat)+17–13(syst) ± 1(lumi) fb per lepton flavor, in good agreement with the leading-order theoretical calculation normalized to the next-to-leading-order theoretical prediction of 48 ± 10 fb.
This book reports on the search for a new heavy particle, the Vector-Like Top quark (VLT), in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The signal process is the pair production of VLT decaying into a Higgs boson and top quark (TT→Ht+X, X=Ht, Wb, Zt). The signal events result in top–antitop quarks final states with additional heavy flavour jets. The book summarises the analysis of the data collected with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. In order to better differentiate between signals and backgrounds, exclusive taggers of top quark and Higgs boson were developed and optimised for VLT signals. These efforts improved the sensitivity by roughly 30%, compared to the previous analysis. The analysis outcomes yield the strongest constraints on parameter space in various BSM theoretical models. In addition, the book addresses detector operation and the evaluation of tracking performance. These efforts are essential to properly collecting dense events and improving the accuracy of the reconstructed objects that are used for particle identification. As such, they represent a valuable contribution to data analysis in extremely dense environments.
This thesis introduces readers to the Standard Model, the top quark and its properties, before explaining the concept of spin correlation measurement. The first measurement of top quark spin correlations at the LHC in the lepton+jets decay channel is presented. As the heaviest elementary particle, the top quark plays an essential role in the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. In the case of top quarks being produced in pairs at hadron colliders, the Standard Model predicts their spins to be correlated. The degree of correlation depends on both the production mechanism and properties of the top quark. Any deviation from the Standard Model prediction can be an indicator for new physics phenomena. The thesis employs an advanced top quark reconstruction algorithm including dedicated identification of the up- and down-type quarks from the W boson decay.
