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.
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.
This title provides an in-depth introduction to the particle physics of current and future experiments at particle accelerators. The text provides the reader with an overview of practically all aspects of the strong interaction necessary to understand and appreciate modern particle phenomenology at the energy frontier.
In an epoch when particle physics is awaiting a major step forward, the Large Hydron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva will soon be operational. It will collide a beam of high energy protons with another similar beam circulation in the same 27 km tunnel but in the opposite direction, resulting in the production of many elementary particles some never created in the laboratory before. It is widely expected that the LHC will discover the Higgs boson, the particle which supposedly lends masses to all other fundamental particles. In addition, the question as to whether there is some new law of physics at such high energy is likely to be answered through this experiment. The present volume contains a collection of articles written by international experts, both theoreticians and experimentalists, from India and abroad, which aims to acquaint a non-specialist with some basic issues related to the LHC. At the same time, it is expected to be a useful, rudimentary companion of introductory exposition and technical expertise alike, and it is hoped to become unique in its kind. The fact that there is substantial Indian involvement in the entire LHC endeavour, at all levels including fabrication, physics analysis procedures as well as theoretical studies, is also amply brought out in the collection.
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.
This thesis addresses two different topics, both vital for implementing modern high-energy physics experiments: detector development and data analysis. Providing a concise introduction to both the standard model of particle physics and the basic principles of semiconductor tracking detectors, it presents the first measurement of the top quark pole mass from the differential cross-section of tt+J events in the dileptonic tt decay channel. The first part focuses on the development and characterization of silicon pixel detectors. To account for the expected increase in luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the pixel detector of the compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiment is replaced by an upgraded detector with new front-end electronics. It presents comprehensive test beam studies conducted to verify the design and quantify the performance of the new front-end in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Furthermore, it proposes a new cluster interpolation method, which utilizes the third central moment of the cluster charge distribution to improve the position resolution. The second part of the thesis introduces an alternative measurement of the top quark mass from the normalized differential production cross-sections of dileptonic top quark pair events with an additional jet. The energy measurement is 8TeV. Using theoretical predictions at next-to-leading order in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the top quark pole mass is determined using a template fit method.
The 32nd International Conference on High Energy Physics belongs to the Rochester Conference Series, and is the most important international conference in 2004 on high energy physics. The proceedings provide a comprehensive review on the recent developments in experimental and theoretical particle physics. The latest results on Top, Higgs search, CP violation, neutrino mixing, pentaquarks, heavy quark mesons and baryons, search for new particles and new phenomena, String theory, Extra dimension, Black hole and Lattice calculation are discussed extensively. The topics covered include not only those of main interest to the high energy physics community, but also recent research and future plans. Contents: Neutrino Masses and MixingsQuark Matter and Heavy Ion CollisionsParticle Astrophysics and CosmologyElectroweak PhysicsQCD Hard InteractionsQCD Soft InteractionsComputational Quantum Field TheoryCP Violation, Rare Kaon Decay and CKMR&D for Future Accelerator and DetectorHadron Spectroscopy and ExoticsHeavy Quark Mesons and BaryonsBeyond the Standard ModelString Theory Readership: Experimental and theoretical physicists and graduate students in the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology.Keywords:High Energy Physics;Particle Physics;Electroweak;QCD;Heavy Quark;Neutrino;Particle Astrophysics;Hadron Spectroscopy;CP Violation;Quark Matter;Future Accelerator
This comprehensive volume summarizes and structures the multitude of results obtained at the LHC in its first running period and draws the grand picture of today’s physics at a hadron collider. Topics covered are Standard Model measurements, Higgs and top-quark physics, flavour physics, heavy-ion physics, and searches for supersymmetry and other extensions of the Standard Model. Emphasis is placed on overview and presentation of the lessons learned. Chapters on detectors and the LHC machine and a thorough outlook into the future complement the book. The individual chapters are written by teams of expert authors working at the forefront of LHC research.
During more than 10 years, from 1989 until 2000, the LEP accelerator and the four LEP experiments, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have taken data for a large amount of measurements at the frontier of particle physics. The main outcome is a thorough and successful test of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Mass and width of the Z and W bosons were measured precisely, as well as the Z and photon couplings to fermions and the couplings among gauge bosons. The rst part of this work will describe the most important physics results of the LEP experiments. Emphasis is put on the properties of the W boson, which was my main research eld at LEP. Especially the precise determination of its mass and its couplings to the other gauge bosons will be described. Details on physics effects like Colour Reconnection and Bose-Einstein Correlations in W-pair events shall be discussed as well. A conclusive summary of the current electroweak measurements, including low-energy results, as the pillars of possible future ndings will be given. The important contributions from Tevatron, like the measurement of the top quark and W mass, will round up the present day picture of electroweak particle physics.
The first precision measurements on CP violation in the B system are reported. Both the BELLE and the BABAR collaboration presented, among others, results for sin 2ß with much improved accuracy. Results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, SNO, also deserve to be mentioned. The convincing evidence of solar neutrino oscillations had been presented by SNO prior to the conference; a full presentation was given at the conference. An incredibly precise measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is reported, a fresh result from the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Apart from these distinct physics highlights, there are also the first results from the new Tevatron run and from the relativistic heavy ion collider RHIC. Theorists write of our ever better understanding of the Standard Model and of what might lie beyond. Risky as it is to highlight only a couple of exciting subjects, it is merely meantto whet the appetite for further reading.
