A search for dark matter produced in association with a top quark pair is presented. The search is performed using 19.7 $mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ of proton-proton collisions recorded at a center of mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The signature investigated is top quark pairs in the semi-leptonic final state plus missing transverse energy. This work focuses in particular on dark matter production through scalar interaction where a proportionality to the quark mass is expected.
We present a search strategy for the first Kaluza-Klein (KK) mode of the Higgs boson in the framework of the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model with a deformed metric. We study the production of this massive excitation in association with a ttbar pair at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The KK Higgs primarily decays into a boosted ttbar final state and we then end up with an interesting four-top final state of which two are boosted. The boosted products in the final state improve the sensitivity for the search of the KK Higgs in this channel whose production cross-section is otherwise rather small. Our results suggest that masses of the KK Higgs resonance upto about 1.2 TeV may be explorable at the highest planned luminosities of the LHC. Beyond this mass, the KK Higgs cross-section is too tiny for it to be explored at the LHC and may be possible only at a future higher energy collider.
We consider top quark pair production in association with a hard jet through next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. Top quark decays are treated in the narrow width approximation and spin correlations are retained throughout the computation. We include hard jet radiation by top quark decay products and explore their importance for basic kinematic distributions at the Tevatron and the LHC. Our results suggest that QCD corrections and jet radiation in decays can lead to significant changes in shapes of basic distributions and, therefore, need to be included for the description of ttbar+jet production. We compare the shape of the transverse momentum distribution of a top quark pair recently measured by the D0 collaboration with the result of our computation and find reasonable agreement.
We present a comprehensive analysis of the loop induced top quark FCNC signals at the LHC within one class of the simplified model. The loop level FCNC interactions are well motivated to avoid the hierarchy of the top quark couplings from the new physics and standard model. Such a theory will posit a Majorana dark matter candidate and could be tested through dark matter relic density, direct detection experiments (the scattering between dark matter and heavy nuclei), and the collider signals at the LHC. We find that the spin-independent (SI) scattering between Majorana dark matter and nuclei will vanish at the leading order, while the next-to-leading order correction to the SI scattering becomes significance to constrain the parameter space of the model. A detailed comparison from direct detection experiments and LHC searches is also discussed and both of them are very important to full constrain the model.
On the twentieth anniversary of the observation of the top quark, we trace our understanding of this heaviest of all known particles from the prediction of its existence, through the searches and discovery, to the current knowledge of its production mechanisms and properties. We also discuss the central role of the top quark in the Standard Model and the windows that it opens for seeking new physics beyond the Standard Model.
We compute QCD corrections to the production of a ttbar pair in association with a hard photon at the Tevatron and the LHC. This process allows a direct measurement of the top quark electromagnetic couplings that, at the moment, are only loosely constrained. We include top quark decays, treating them in the narrow width approximation, and retain spin correlations of final-state particles. Photon radiation off top quark decay products is included in our calculation and yields a significant contribution to the cross-section. We study next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the ppbar -> ttbar+gamma process at the Tevatron for the selection criteria used in a recent measurement by the CDF collaboration. We also discuss the impact of QCD corrections to the pp -> ttbar+gamma process on the measurement of the top quark electric charge at the 14 TeV LHC.