Searches For New Physics In Top Events At The Tevatron

Recent results of searches for new physics in top events at the Tevatron are presented. In case of CDF three searches are discussed using 6 to 8.7 fb−1 of data, with the latter being the final CDF data sample available for this kind of analysis. CDF carried out a search for Top + jet resonance production, dark matter production in association with single top and boosted tops. No signs of new physics are observed and instead upper limits are derived. D0 used 5.3 fb−1 of data and searched for a narrow resonance in t{bar t} production and a time dependent t{bar t} cross section, which would reveal a violation of Lorentz invariance. However, no signs for deviations from standard model are seen and instead upper limits for non-standard model contributions are calculated.

We report on selected recent results from the CDF and D0 experiments on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model using data from the Tevatron collider running p{bar p} collisions at √s = 1960 GeV. Over the past decades the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics has been surprisingly successful. Although the precision of experimental tests improved by orders of magnitude no significant deviation from the SM predictions has been observed so far. Still, there are many questions that the Standard Model does not answer and problems it can not solve. Among the most important ones are the origin of the electro-weak symmetry breaking, hierarchy of scales, unification of fundamental forces and the nature of gravity. Recent cosmological observations indicates that the SM particles only account for 4% of the matter of the Universe. Many extensions of the SM (Beyond the Standard Model, BSM) have been proposed to make the theory more complete and solve some of the above puzzles. Some of these extension includes SuperSymmetry (SUSY), Grand Unification Theory (GUT) and Extra Dimensions. At CDF and D0 we search for evidence of such processes in proton-antiproton collisions at √(s) = 1960 GeV. The phenomenology of these models is very rich, although the cross sections for most of these exotic processes is often very small compared to those of SM processes at hadron colliders. It is then necessary to devise analysis strategies that would allow to disentangle the small interesting signals, often buried under heavy instrumental and/or physics background. Two main approaches to search for physics beyond the Standard Model are used in a complementary fashion: model-based analyses and signature based studies. In the more traditional model-driven approach, one picks a favorite theoretical model and/or a process, and the best signature is chosen. The selection cuts are optimized based on acceptance studies performed using simulated signal events. The expected background is calculated from data and/or Monte Carlo and, based on the number of events observed in the data, a discovery is made or the best limit on the new signal is set. In a signature-based approach a specific signature is picked (i.e. dileptons+X) and the data sample is defined in terms of known SM processes. A signal region (blind box) might be defined with cuts which are kept as loose as possible and the background predictions in the signal region are often extrapolated from control regions. Inconsistencies with the SM predictions will provide indication of possible new physics. As the cuts and acceptances are often calculated independently from a model, different models can be tested against the data sample. It should be noticed that the comparison with a specific model implies calculating optimized acceptances for a specific BSM signal. In signature-based searches, there is no such an optimization. Both the experiments have followed a somehow natural approach in pursuing analysis looking at final state signatures characterized by relatively simple physics objects (for example lepton-only final state, where the selection of the leptons is straightforward and can be easily checked with the measurement of electroweak boson production cross sections) and proceeding onto more complex final state, including jets and heavy flavor. Here more sophisticated identification techniques need to be used and issues like jet energy scale calibration play an important role in determining the final result. Given the limited space available for this proceeding, we will focus here on few selected results.

This book mainly investigates the precision predictions on the signal of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) scheme. The potential of the LHC to discover the signal of dark matter associated production with a photon is studied after including next-to-leading order QCD corrections. The factorization and resummation of t-channel top quark transverse momentum distribution in the standard model at both the Tevatron and the LHC with soft-collinear effective theory are presented. The potential of the early LHC to discover the signal of monotops is discussed. These examples illustrate the method of searching for new physics beyond what is known today with high precision.

The CDF and D0 collaborations each have collected over 110 pb[sup -1] from top quark physics and searches for first generation leptoquarks (LQ), using the entire statistics of these large data sets. After careful selection, both collaborations have collected top quark data samples consisting of several dozen events each. From these events both experiments have measured the top quark mass and pair production cross section in a variety of decay channels, including the so-called dilepton, lepton plus jets, and all jets channels. The combined top quark mass from both experiments in the lepton plus jets channels is m[sub t]= 175.6[+-]5.5 GeV/c[sup 2]. CDF and D0 have also performed optimized searches for the pair production of first generation leptoquarks. No candidate events were found. Combining the results from the ee+jets, e[nu]+jets, and[nu][nu]+jets channels both experiments set 95% confidence level (CL) upper limits on the LQ pair production cross section as a function of mass and of[beta], the branching fraction to a charged lepton.

The top quark is currently only observed at the Tevatron, where it is mainly produced in t{bar t} pairs. Due to the very high mass of the top quark compared to the other quarks and the gauge bosons, it is expected to play a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking. Therefore it might be especially sensitive to new physics. Measurements of various production and decay quantities of the top quark could lead to discoveries of physics beyond the standard model. Several such measurements were performed by the CDF collaboration during Run1 of the Tevatron. These measurements and first results from CDF in Run2 are presented.

We present some of the latest updated results on searches for physics beyond the Standard Model at the Tevatron Collider using the full Run 1 data sample of p{anti p} collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV collected with the CDF and D0 detectors. Results are reported relative to searches for squarks and gluinos, scalar top and bottom quarks and superlight gravitino. 95% CL exclusion limits are presented for degenerate states of Technicolor particles [rho]T and [omega]T.

The turning-on of the Large Hadron Collider is the momentous milestone in our quest for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Soon, we will be presented with the task of detecting, identifying, and studying the possibly large parameter space of the underlying model. In this thesis, we will look at some possible extensions to the SM, their signatures at colliders, and possible search strategies to explore the new physics in a model-independent way. In chapter 2, we study the extended neutral gauge sector of the Littlest Higgs model at the 500 GeV e+e- collider using the fermion pair production and Higgs associate production channel. We find that these channels can provide an accurate determination of the fundamental parameters and thus allows the verification of the little Higgs mechanism designed to cancel the Higgs mass quadratic divergence. In chapter 3, we study the ATLAS supersymmetry searches proposed for the 14 TeV pp collider using the $\sim$ 70k models of the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Model (pMSSM) moldel set, that have survived many theoretical and experimental constraints. Since pMSSM does not make any simplifying assumptions about its SUSY-breaking mechanism at high scale, this encompasses a broad class of Supersymmetric models. We find that even though these searches were optimized mostly for mSUGRA signals, they are relatively robust in observing the more general pMSSM models. For the case of models in which squarks and gluinos have mass below 1 TeV, essentially all of these models ($> 99\%$) were observable in at least one of these searches, with 1 $fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity allowing for an uncertainty of 50\% in the SM background. We found that 0-lepton searches are the most powerful searches, while searches with 1-2 leptons do not have coverage as good as has been shown for mSUGRA. We then study possible reasons why a model could not be observed. These difficult models mostly include those with long-lived charginos which lead to small Missing Tranverse Energy (MET) and models with squeezed spectra which lead to soft jets that fail the jet cuts. In chapter 4, we study similar searches that have been carried out by ATLAS at the 7 TeV LHC. We found that systematic uncertainty again plays an important role in determining the coverage of the searches. This is especially true for searches with a large SM background, such as $n$-jet 0 lepton searches. We study the implication of a null result from the 7 TeV LHC. We find that the degree of fine-tuning in the pMSSM depends on the prior in which we scan our 19-dimensional space, but overall it is not as large as in mSUGRA. We find that a null result at the 7 TeV with $10 fb^{-1}$ and 20\% systematic errors would imply a need for a higher energy e+e- machine than the 500 GeV ILC to study Supersymmetry. Continuing on along the line of Supersymmetry, in chapter 5 we explore the possibility of adding one more generation to the MSSM (4GMSSM). We find that the CP-odd A boson can be very light due to the contribution of the heavy 4th generation fermion loops while all other Higgs particles (including the CP-even {\it h}) are all quite heavy. The parameter $tan(\beta)$ is strongly constrained to be between 0.5 and 2 due to perturbativity requirements on Yukawa couplings. We study the electroweak constraints as well as collider signatures on the possibility of a light A of mass $\sim$115 GeV. As for an LHC discovery, we find that this light A can be seen in the standard 2-photon Higgs search channel with cross-section more than an order of magnitude greater than that of the SM Higgs. In the last two chapters, we study possible search strategies to explore the new physics in a model-independent way. In chapter 6, we attempt to show how one could be largely agnostic about the underlying model in exploring the complete kinematically-allowed parameter space of pair-produced color octet particles (with mass $m_{\tilde{g}}$) that each directly decay into two jets plus a neutral stable particle (with mass $m_{\tilde{B}}$) that would escape the detectors and appear as MET. The kinematics of this process can be completely described by two parameters $m_{\tilde {g}}$ and $m_{\tilde {B}}$ , and in particular their splitting determines the softness or hardness of jets from the decay products. In order to cover the whole parameter space, one would need separate searches for different regions. We show that optimizing the final cuts for every ($m_{\tilde {g}}$, $m_{\tilde {B}}$) point, and combining all searches, can extend the coverage significantly. Since this is just based on the kinematics of the decay, this result can be easily interpreted for any model with this decay topology. In chapter 7, we carry this model-independent approach further in jets plus missing energy searches, by proposing that one should bin the measured data (or simulated SM background) differentially in MET and $H_T$ (scalar sum of invisible energy) for each search, and use them to set limits on any model of interest. We demonstrate this technique by carrying out a search similar to that studied in chapter 6, with one added decay step for the color octet particle, mainly it decays to 2 jets and another particle (with mass $m_{\tilde {W}}$) and it in turn decays to the neutral stable particle and 2 jets. We study different kinematic regions and set bounds in this 3-dimensional parameter space ($m_{\tilde {g}}$, $m_{\tilde {W}}$, $m_{\tilde {B}}$).

This will be a required acquisition text for academic libraries. More than ten years after its discovery, still relatively little is known about the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle. This extensive survey summarizes and reviews top-quark physics based on the precision measurements at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, as well as examining in detail the sensitivity of these experiments to new physics. Finally, the author provides an overview of top quark physics at the Large Hadron Collider.

The LHC is in the frontline of experimental searches for New Physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Its power is accompanied by no smaller challenges in analyzing and interpreting its results. In this thesis I explore ways to parameterize new physics phenomena, design search strategies that are sensitive to them, and interpret experimental results in general new physics contexts. In particular, I discuss interpretations of the first ATLAS analysis for supersymmetry with 70/nb of integrated luminosity. I also carry a careful investigation of comprehensive search strategies for new physics with jets and missing energy signatures, and estimate the sensitivity bounds of the 7 TeV LHC to new colored particles decaying to jets and and a neutral particle that escapes detection. Finally, I discuss the implications of the recent LHC excesses hinting to a Higgs boson with mass in the range 142-147 GeV. If confirmed, this range for the Higgs mass will be an important evidence for Split Supersymmetry. I work out the phenomenological predictions of this scenario that will be tested in the very near future by a variety of experiments, including direct and indirect dark matter detection, EDM experiments searching for CP violation and the 7 TeV run of the LHC.