No Arabic abstract
The asymmetries ${cal A}_k equiv [Gamma(twddec) -Gamma(tbwddec)] /[Gamma(twddec) + Gamma(tbwddec)]$ in the partial widths of the top quark decays are discussed within the Standard Model (SM), the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) and supersymmetric extensions of the SM (SSM). The leading contributions to these asymmetries in the SM and in the 2HDM are induced by the up-type quark self-energy diagrams and are found to be very small. However, in the SSM, the asymmetry ${cal A}_b$ can be substantial, ${cal O}(alpha_{QCD})$, provided the CP-violating phase of gluino-top-stop couplings is not suppressed. Within the SSM ${cal A}_b$ is generated by the vertex corrections.
We point out that QCD coherence effects can help to identify the colour structure of possible new physics contributions to the anomalously large forward-backward asymmetry in top quark pair production. New physics models that yield the same inclusive asymmetry make different predictions for its dependence on the transverse momentum of the pair, if they have different colour structures. From both a fixed-order effective field theory approach and Monte Carlo studies of specific models, we find that an s-channel octet structure is preferred.
At the LHC, top quark pairs are dominantly produced from gluons, making it difficult to measure the top quark forward-backward asymmetry. To improve the asymmetry measurement, we study variables that can distinguish between top quarks produced from quarks and those from gluons: the invariant mass of the top pair, the rapidity of the top-antitop system in the lab frame, the rapidity of the top quark in the top-antitop rest frame, the top quark polarization and the top-antitop spin correlation. We combine all the variables in a likelihood discriminant method to separate quark-initiated events from gluon-initiated events. We apply our method on models including G-primes and W-primes motivated by the recent observation of a large top quark forward-backward asymmetry at the Tevatron. We have found that the significance of the asymmetry measurement can be improved by 10% to 30%. At the same time, the central values of the asymmetry increase by 40% to 100%. We have also analytically derived the best spin quantization axes for studying top quark polarization as well as spin-correlation for the new physics models.
The leading-order accurate description of top quark pair production, as usually employed in standard Monte Carlo event generators, gives no rise to the generation of a forward--backward asymmetry. Yet, non-negligible -- differential as well as inclusive -- asymmetries may be produced if coherent parton showering is used in the hadroproduction of top quark pairs. In this contribution we summarize the outcome of our study of this effect. We present a short comparison of different parton shower implementations and briefly comment on the phenomenology of the colour coherence effect at the Tevatron.
We calculate the forward backward asymmetry of the top-pair production at TEVATRON up to next to leading order (NLO) in the little Higgs model (LHM). We find that the contribution of $Z_H$ can be large enough to make up the gap between standard model (SM) prediction and data. With the database of $7.65pm0.20pm0.36$ pb, therefore, the parameter space for flavor-changing coupling of $Z_H$ is constrained. Thus this model can result in the required asymmetry while the total cross section of top-pair production remaining consistent with data.
We present an improved determination of the up- and down-quark distributions in the proton using recent data on charged lepton asymmetries from $W^pm$ gauge-boson production at the LHC and Tevatron. The analysis is performed in the framework of a global fit of parton distribution functions. The fit results are consistent with a non-zero iso-spin asymmetry of the sea, $x(bar d - bar u)$, at small values of Bjorken $xsim 10^{-4}$ indicating a delayed onset of the Regge asymptotics of a vanishing $(bar d - bar u)$-asymmetry at small-$x$. We compare with up- and down-quark distributions available in the literature and provide accurate predictions for the production of single top-quarks at the LHC, a process which can serve as a standard candle for the light quark flavor content of the proton.