The top quark and its properties within and beyond the Standard Model will be extensively studied at the incoming Large Hadron Collider. Nonetheless the top quark will play the role of the main background for most of the Higgs and new physics searches. In this paper the top as a background to H=>WW=>2l2nu Higgs discovery channel will be studied. The current status of the Monte Carlo tools for t-tbar and single top simulation will be presented. Finally the problem on how to evaluate the top background from the data will be addressed and the related systematics will be discussed.
We present a search for a standard model Higgs boson decaying to two $W$ bosons that decay to leptons using the full data set collected with the CDF II detector in $sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV $pbar{p}$ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 fb${}^{-1}$. We obtain no evidence for production of a standard model Higgs boson with mass between 110 and 200 GeV/$c^2$, and place upper limits on the production cross section within this range. We exclude standard model Higgs boson production at the 95% confidence level in the mass range between 149 and 172 GeV/$c^2$, while expecting to exclude, in the absence of signal, the range between 155 and 175 GeV/$c^2$. We also interpret the search in terms of standard model Higgs boson production in the presence of a fourth generation of fermions and within the context of a fermiophobic Higgs boson model. For the specific case of a standard model-like Higgs boson in the presence of fourth-generation fermions, we exclude at the 95% confidence level Higgs boson production in the mass range between 124 and 200 GeV/$c^2$, while expecting to exclude, in the absence of signal, the range between 124 and 221 GeV/$c^2$.
The hallmark way to search for electroweakinos in natural supersymmetry at the LHC involves the trilepton plus missing energy final state. This approach assumes an electroweakino mass hierarchy that allows for cascade decays leading to a final state of $W^{pm}Z^0$ plus missing energy. There are, however, situations when that decay pattern may not exist, such as when a chargino is the lightest electroweakino and the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. In regions of the parameter space where this ordering occurs, the production of any combination of neutralino/chargino leads to a $W^+W^- + X$ plus missing energy final state, where $X$ could be additional jets or leptons. If $X$ is soft, then all neutralino/chargino production modes fall into the same experimental final state, dileptons plus missing energy. ATLAS and CMS have leptonic $W^+W^-$ plus missing energy searches, but their interpretation assumes a spectrum consisting of an isolated charged state. In this paper, we identify the circumstances under which natural supersymmetry models can avoid $W^{pm}Z^0$ plus missing energy bounds. For scenarios that escape $W^{pm}Z^0$ plus missing energy, we then recast the latest ATLAS $W^+W^-$ plus missing energy search, taking into account all the states that contribute to the same signal. Assuming the lightest supersymmetric particle is massless, we find a bound of 460 GeV for a higgsino-like degenerate doublet. Finally, we extend our arguments to a non-supersymmetric simplified model containing new electroweak-scale $SU(2)_w$ doublets and singlets.
The analysis of $W$ production and the search for anomalous single top production is performed with the H1 detector at HERA with an integrated luminosity of 0.5 fb$^{-1}$, consisting of the complete high energy data from the HERA programme. Production cross section measurements of single $W$ production, as well as $W$ polarisation fractions in events containing isolated leptons and missing transverse momentum are also presented. In the context of a search for single top production an upper limit on the top production cross section $sigma_{epto etX} < 0.16$ pb is established at the 95% confidence level, corresponding to an upper bound on the anomalous magnetic coupling $kappa_{tugamma} < 0.14$.
We present a study of jet production in association with W and Z bosons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using the full 2010 data set collected by CMS corresponding to an integrated luminosity of (35.9 +/- 1.4) inverse picobarn. We report the measurement of ratios s(V + >= n jets)/s(V) and s(V + >= n jets)/s(V + >= (n - 1) jets), where V represents either a W or a Z, s stands for the cross section and n stands for the number of jets.
Top quark decays are of particular interest as a mean to test the standard model (SM) predictions, both for dominant (t -> b + W) and rare decays (t -> q + W, cV, cVV, c phi^{0}, bWZ). As the latter are highly suppressed, they become an excellent window to probe the predictions of thories beyond the SM. In particular, we evaluate the corrections from new physics to the CKM-suppressed SM top quark decay t -> q + W (q = d, s), both within the an effective model with right-handed currents and the MSSM. We also discuss the perspectives to probe those predictions at the ILC.