No Arabic abstract
Effective field theory (EFT) approaches are widely used at the LHC, such that it is important to study their validity, and ease of matching to specific new physics models. In this paper, we consider an extension of the SM in which a top quark couples to a new heavy scalar. We find the dimension six operators generated by this theory at low energy, and match the EFT to the full theory up to NLO precision in the simplified model coupling. We then examine the range of validity of the EFT description in top pair production, finding excellent validity even if the scalar mass is only slightly above LHC energies, provided NLO corrections are included. In the absence of the latter, the LO EFT overestimates kinematic distributions, such that over-optimistic constraints on BSM contributions are obtained. We next examine the constraints on the EFT and full models that are expected to be obtained from both top pair and four top production at the LHC, finding for low scalar masses that both processes show similar exclusion power. However, for larger masses, estimated LHC uncertainties push constraints into the non-perturbative regime, where the full model is difficult to analyse, and thus not perturbatively matchable to the EFT. This highlights the necessity to improve uncertainties of SM hypotheses in top final states.
We present a novel framework for carrying out global analyses of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) at dimension-six: SMEFiT. This approach is based on the Monte Carlo replica method for deriving a faithful estimate of the experimental and theoretical uncertainties and enables one to construct the probability distribution in the space of the SMEFT degrees of freedom. As a proof of concept of the SMEFiT methodology, we present a first study of the constraints on the SMEFT provided by top quark production measurements from the LHC. Our analysis includes more than 30 independent measurements from 10 different processes at 8 and 13 TeV such as inclusive top-quark pair and single-top production and the associated production of top quarks with weak vector bosons and the Higgs boson. State-of-the-art theoretical calculations are adopted both for the Standard Model and for the SMEFT contributions, where in the latter case NLO QCD corrections are included for the majority of processes. We derive bounds for the 34 degrees of freedom relevant for the interpretation of the LHC top quark data and compare these bounds with previously reported constraints. Our study illustrates the significant potential of LHC precision measurements to constrain physics beyond the Standard Model in a model-independent way, and paves the way towards a global analysis of the SMEFT.
Many studies of possible new physics employ effective field theory (EFT), whereby corrections to the Standard Model take the form of higher-dimensional operators, suppressed by a large energy scale. Fits of such a theory to data typically use parton level observables, which limits the datasets one can use. In order to theoretically model search channels involving many additional jets, it is important to include tree-level matrix elements matched to a parton shower algorithm, and a suitable matching procedure to remove the double counting of additional radiation. There are then two potential problems: (i) EFT corrections are absent in the shower, leading to an extra source of discontinuities in the matching procedure; (ii) the uncertainty in the matching procedure may be such that no additional constraints are obtained from observables sensitive to radiation. In this paper, we review why the first of these is not a problem in practice, and perform a detailed study of the second. In particular, we quantify the additional constraints on EFT expected from top pair plus multijet events, relative to inclusive top pair production alone.
We examine the constraints that future lepton colliders would impose on the effective field theory describing modifications of top-quark interactions beyond the standard model, through measurements of the $e^+e^-to bW^+:bar bW^-$ process. Statistically optimal observables are exploited to constrain simultaneously and efficiently all relevant operators. Their constraining power is sufficient for quadratic effective-field-theory contributions to have negligible impact on limits which are therefore basis independent. This is contrasted with the measurements of cross sections and forward-backward asymmetries. An overall measure of constraints strength, the global determinant parameter, is used to determine which run parameters impose the strongest restriction on the multidimensional effective-field-theory parameter space.
We study the sensitivity to physics beyond the standard model of precise top-quark pair production measurements at future lepton colliders. A global effective-field-theory approach is employed, including all dimension-six operators of the Warsaw basis which involve a top-quark and give rise to tree-level amplitudes that interfere with standard-model $e^+e^-to t,bar tto bW^+bar bW^-$ ones in the limit of vanishing $b$-quark mass. Four-fermion and CP-violating contributions are taken into account. Circular-collider-, ILC- and CLIC-like benchmark run scenarios are examined. We compare the constraining power of various observables to a set of statistically optimal ones which maximally exploit the information contained in the fully differential $bW^+bar bW^-$ distribution. The enhanced sensitivity gained on the linear contributions of dimension-six operators leads to bounds that are insensitive to quadratic ones. Even with statistically optimal observables, two centre-of-mass energies are required for constraining simultaneously two- and four-fermion operators. The impact of the centre-of-mass energy lever arm is discussed, that of beam polarization as well. A realistic estimate of the precision that can be achieved in ILC- and CLIC-like operating scenarios yields individual limits on the electroweak couplings of the top quark that are one to three orders of magnitude better than constraints set with Tevatron and LHC run I data, and three to two hundred times better than the most optimistic projections made for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. Clean global constraints can moreover be obtained at lepton colliders, robustly covering the multidimensional effective-field-theory space with minimal model dependence.
In models with extended scalars and CP violation, resonance searches in double Higgs final states stand in competition with related searches in top quark final states as optimal channels for the discovery of beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics. This complementarity is particularly relevant for benchmark scenarios that aim to highlight multi-Higgs production as a standard candle for the study of BSM phenomena. In this note, we compare interference effects in $tbar t$ final states with correlated phenomena in double Higgs production in the complex singlet and the complex 2-Higgs-Doublet Models. Our results indicate that the BSM discovery potential in di-Higgs searches can be underestimated in comparison to $tbar t $ resonance searches. Top pair final states are typically suppressed due to destructive signal-background interference, while $hh$ final states can be enhanced due to signal-signal interference. For parameter choices where the two heavy Higgs resonances are well separated in mass, top final states are suppressed relative to the naive signal expectation, while estimates of the production cross section times branching ratio remain accurate at the ${cal{O}}(10%)$ level for double Higgs final states.