The main pacemakers of scienti?c research are curiosity, ingenuity, and a pinch of persistence. Equipped with these characteristics a young researcher will be s- cessful in pushing scienti?c discoveries. And there is still a lot to discover and to understand. In the course of understanding the origin and structure of matter it is now known that all matter is made up of six types of quarks. Each of these carry a different mass. But neither are the particular mass values understood nor is it known why elementary particles carry mass at all. One could perhaps accept some small generic mass value for every quark, but nature has decided differently. Two quarks are extremely light, three more have a somewhat typical mass value, but one quark is extremely massive. It is the top quark, the heaviest quark and even the heaviest elementary particle that we know, carrying a mass as large as the mass of three iron nuclei. Even though there exists no explanation of why different particle types carry certain masses, the internal consistency of the currently best theory—the standard model of particle physics—yields a relation between the masses of the top quark, the so-called W boson, and the yet unobserved Higgs particle. Therefore, when one assumes validity of the model, it is even possible to take precise measurements of the top quark mass to predict the mass of the Higgs (and potentially other yet unobserved) particles.
The top quark is by far the heaviest known fundamental particle with a mass nearing that of a gold atom. Because of this strikingly high mass, the top quark has several unique properties and might play an important role in electroweak symmetry breaking—the mechanism that gives all elementary particles mass. Creating top quarks requires access to very high energy collisions, and at present only the Tevatron collider at Fermilab is capable of reaching these energies. Until now, top quarks have only been observed produced in pairs via the strong interaction. At hadron colliders, it should also be possible to produce single top quarks via the electroweak interaction. Studies of single top quark production provide opportunities to measure the top quark spin, how top quarks mix with other quarks, and to look for new physics beyond the standard model. Because of these interesting properties, scientists have been looking for single top quarks for more than 15 years. This thesis presents the first discovery of single top quark production. It documents one of the flagship measurements of the D0 experiment, a collaboration of more than 600 physicists from around the world. It describes first observation of a physical process known as “single top quark production”, which had been sought for more than 10 years before its eventual discovery in 2009. Further, his thesis describes, in detail, the innovative approach Dr. Gillberg took to this analysis. Through the use of Boosted Decision Trees, a machine-learning technique, he observed the tiny single top signal within an otherwise overwhelming background. This Doctoral Thesis has been accepted by Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
This thesis presents the first experimental calibration of the top-quark Monte-Carlo mass. It also provides the top-quark mass-independent and most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurement to date. The most precise measurements of the top-quark mass obtain the top-quark mass parameter (Monte-Carlo mass) used in simulations, which are partially based on heuristic models. Its interpretation in terms of mass parameters used in theoretical calculations, e.g. a running or a pole mass, has been a long-standing open problem with far-reaching implications beyond particle physics, even affecting conclusions on the stability of the vacuum state of our universe. In this thesis, this problem is solved experimentally in three steps using data obtained with the compact muon solenoid (CMS) detector. The most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurements to date are performed. The Monte-Carlo mass is determined and a new method for extracting the top-quark mass from theoretical calculations is presented. Lastly, the top-quark production cross-sections are obtained – for the first time – without residual dependence on the top-quark mass, are interpreted using theoretical calculations to determine the top-quark running- and pole mass with unprecedented precision, and are fully consistently compared with the simultaneously obtained top-quark Monte-Carlo mass.
In this thesis, the first measurement of the running of the top quark mass is presented. This is a fundamental quantum effect that had never been studied before. Any deviation from the expected behaviour can be interpreted as a hint of the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. All relevant aspects of the analysis are extensively described and documented. This thesis also describes a simultaneous measurement of the inclusive top quark-antiquark production cross section and the top quark mass in the simulation. The measured cross section is also used to precisely determine the values of the top quark mass and the strong coupling constant by comparing to state-of-the-art theoretical predictions. All the theoretical and experimental aspects relevant to the results presented in this thesis are discussed in the initial chapters in a concise but complete way, which makes the material accessible to a wider audience.
This meeting discussed the experimental results and theoretical aspects in the field of high energy physics, with special reference to the top quark observation, heavy flavor physics and symmetry-breaking mechanisms. The major topics are developed in a series of course lectures.
This book reports a search for theoretically natural supersymmetry (SUSY) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The data collected with the ATLAS detector in 2012 corresponding to 20 /fb of an integrated luminosity have been analyzed for stop pair production in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the scenario of the higgsino-like neutralino. The author focuses on stop decaying into a bottom quark and chargino. In the scenario of the higgsino-like neutralino, the mass difference between charginos and neutralinos (Δm) is expected to be small, and observable final-state particles are likely to have low-momentum (soft). The author develops a dedicated analysis with a soft lepton as a probe of particles from chargino decay, which suppresses the large amount of backgrounds. As a result of the analysis, no significant SUSY signal is observed. The 95% confidence-level exclusion limits are set to masses of stop and neutralino assuming Δm = 20 GeV. The region with ΔM (the mass difference between stop and neutralino) 70 GeV is excluded for the first time at stop mass of less than 210 GeV. The author also excludes the signals with ΔM 120 GeV up to 600 GeV of stop mass with neutralino mass of less than 280 GeV. The author clearly shows very few remaining parameter spaces for light stop (e.g., topology of stop decay is extremely similar to the SM top quark) by combining his results and previous ATLAS analyses. His results provide a strong constraint to searches for new physics in the future.
This will be a required acquisition text for academic libraries. More than ten years after its discovery, still relatively little is known about the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle. This extensive survey summarizes and reviews top-quark physics based on the precision measurements at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, as well as examining in detail the sensitivity of these experiments to new physics. Finally, the author provides an overview of top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider.
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.
It is known that the LHC has a considerable discovery potential because of its large centre-of-mass energy (vs =14 TeV) and the high design luminosity. In addition, the two experiments ATLAS and CMS perform precision measurements for numerous models in physics. The increasing experimental precision demands an even higher level of accuracy on the theoretical side. For a more precise prediction of outcomes, one has to consider the corrections obtained typically from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The calculation of these corrections in the high energy regime is described by perturbation theory. In the present study, multi-loop calculations in QCD, including in particular two-loop corrections for single top quark production, are considered. There are several phenomenological motivations to study single top quark production: Firstly, the process is sensitive to the electroweak Wtb-vertex; moreover, non-standard couplings can hint at physics beyond the Standard Model. Secondly, the t-channel cross section measurement provides information on the b-quark Parton Distribution Functions (PDF). Finally, single top quark production enables us to directly measure the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa(CKM) matrix element Vtb. The next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) calculation of the single top quark production has many building blocks. In this study, two blocks will be presented: one-loop corrections squared and two-loop corrections interfered with Born. Initially, the one-loop squared contribution at NNLO for single top quark production will be calculated. Before we begin with the calculation of the two-loop corrections to single top quark production, we calculate the QCD form factors of heavy quarks at NNLO, along with the axial vector coupling as a first independent check. A comparison with the relevant literature suggests that this approach is in line with generally accepted procedure. This consistency check provides a proof of the validity of our setup. In the next step, the two-loop corrections to single top quark production will be calculated. After reducing all occurring tensor integrals to scalar integrals, we apply the integration by parts method (IBP) to find the master integrals. This step is a major challenge compared to all similar calculations because of the number of variables in the problem (two Mandelstam variables s and t, the dimension d and the mass of the top quark mt as well as the mass of the W boson mw). Finally, the calculation of the three kinds of topologies – vertex corrections, double boxes and non-planar double boxes – in the two-loop contribution at NNLO calculation will be presented.