The beauty of tops: from precision measurements to searches for new physics

by Denise Müller (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Tuesday 23 Apr 2024, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

ENC-D308

The top quark plays a unique role in the standard model of particle physics. It is the heaviest elementary particle and decays before forming bound states with other particles.  Since the start of the LHC, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have extensively explored the top quark sector. Precision measurements of top quark production modes induced by strong or electroweak interactions provide insight into different properties, such as the CKM matrix element $V_{tb}$. In the production of top quarks associated with the Higgs boson, the top-Yukawa coupling is studied to understand why its value is so close to 1. Since Run 2 of the LHC, the precision of our analyses has significantly improved. Thanks to the vast amount of recorded data, advancements in jet flavor identification, and hardware upgrades, we can now investigate more complex final states with top quarks. These phase spaces have the potential to uncover new physics scenarios, resolving the open questions of the standard model of particle physics and shedding light on the composition of dark matter.

In this presentation, I will focus on selected top quark analyses. In addition, I will provide an outlook on potential new-physics searches in the top quark sector, and will outline the importance of enhancements in heavy-flavor tagging and detector hardware to improve the sensitivity.