Search

Future muon colliders with center-of-mass energy of O (1 − 10) TeV can provide a clean high-energy environment with advantages in searches for TeV-scale axion-like particles (ALPs), pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with spontaneously broken global symmetries, which are widely predicted in physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). We exploit ALP couplings to SM fermions, and guided by unitarity constraints, build a search strategy focusing on the ALP decay to top quark pairs at muon colliders. It is found that a large parameter space of TeV-scale ALPs with TeV-scale decay constants can be probed by utilizing the ALP-top quark coupling.

Numerical simulations of three and four top quark hadroproduction processes are carried out in the SMEFT model framework. The simulated data are used to derive expected theoretical constraints on Wilson coefficients of relevant SMEFT operators of dimension six. Obtained limits for both cases are discussed and compared in terms of processes’ sensitivity to possible BSM contribution. Results show that operator Ott1 is better constrained by the process of four top quark production, whereas other four operators OQQ1, OQt1, OQt8 and OQQ8, are similarly constrained in three and four top quark production processes. In all cases, the expected limits taken from the simultaneous analysis of the production of three and four top quarks are strengthened. Analytical expressions for the partial amplitudes of the processes tt→tt and tt̄→tt̄ caused by the operators Ott1, OQQ1, OQt1, OQt8, OQQ8 were obtained for the first time. Based on the expressions of the obtained partial amplitudes, graphs of the perturbative unitarity boundary for the listed operators were drawn. The question of how kinematic cuts motivated by partial unitarity affect the resulting constraints on the Willson coefficients is addressed. It is shown that in all cases the limits are getting somewhat worse if such cuts are applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider top quark production and decay in the narrow width approximation and study if the polarisation effects, that manifest themselves in correlations of angular distributions of particles from top quark decays and final state jets in the production sub-process, are affected by linear power corrections. We find that, in general, the answer to this question is affirmative. We also discuss how these non-perturbative corrections affect polarisation observables used to study single top production at the LHC. Finally, we point out that generic kinematic distributions of leptons from top quark decays are affected by linear power corrections, which may have implications for proposals to extract the top quark mass from such leptonic observables. On the other hand, we demonstrate that the distribution of the “out-of-collision-plane” component of the positron momentum is free from linear power corrections, making it an interesting candidate for the top quark mass measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaching a high precision of the top quark mass is an important task of the Large Hadron Collider. We perform a feasibility study of measuring the top quark mass through the three-point energy correlator. The expected sensitivity of the top quark mass in the boosted regime is presented. We further introduce its application to the low top pT regime and demonstrate that both the W boson and the top quark masses could be extracted from this single observable. Compared to traditional observables, the energy correlator shows robustness to uncertainties that usually dominate experimental measurements and provides a promising way to improve experimental precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present analytic results for three-loop fermionic corrections to the heavy-light form factors in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Specifically, we present all light quark contributions and contributions from two heavy quark loops. We use the method of differential equations to compute all relevant three-loop master integrals. The results for all these contributions are expressed in terms of harmonic polylogarithms and generalized harmonic polylogarithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We consider top quark production and decay in the narrow width approximation and study if the polarisation effects, that manifest themselves in correlations of angular distributions of particles from top quark decays and final state jets in the production sub-process, are affected by linear power corrections. We find that, in general, the answer to this question is affirmative. We also discuss how these non-perturbative corrections affect polarisation observables used to study single top production at the LHC. Finally, we point out that generic kinematic distributions of leptons from top quark decays are affected by linear power corrections, which may have implications for proposals to extract the top quark mass from such leptonic observables. On the other hand, we demonstrate that the distribution of the “out-of-collision-plane” component of the positron momentum is free from linear power corrections, making it an interesting candidate for the top quark mass measurement.

Abstract We present analytic results for three-loop fermionic corrections to the heavy-light form factors in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Specifically, we present all light quark contributions and contributions from two heavy quark loops. We use the method of differential equations to compute all relevant three-loop master integrals. The results for all these contributions are expressed in terms of harmonic polylogarithms and generalized harmonic polylogarithms.

Abstract Reaching a high precision of the top quark mass is an important task of the Large Hadron Collider. We perform a feasibility study of measuring the top quark mass through the three-point energy correlator. The expected sensitivity of the top quark mass in the boosted regime is presented. We further introduce its application to the low top p T regime and demonstrate that both the W boson and the top quark masses could be extracted from this single observable. Compared to traditional observables, the energy correlator shows robustness to uncertainties that usually dominate experimental measurements and provides a promising way to improve experimental precision.

Abstract We present the analytic total cross section of top quark pair production in electron-positron annihilation at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). By utilizing the optical theorem, the NNLO corrections are related to the imaginary parts of three-loop self-energy Feynman diagrams, of which the master integrals are calculated with canonical differential equations. The analytic results for the NNLO corrections are expressed in terms of multiple polylogarithms as well as elliptic functions. We discuss the asymptotic expansions near the threshold and in the high energy limit in detail. Numerical results are provided for the total cross section of top quark pair production at future lepton colliders.

Abstract We study the quantum properties of top quark pairs in lepton colliders with unpolarised beams, including spin correlations, entanglement, and violation of Bell inequalities. We present analytical results in the SM and in the SMEFT and discuss several practical aspects, like the choice of quantisation axes and t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ threshold effects. We also note a correspondence between parity symmetry and entanglement. We find that quantum observables exhibit a rich phenomenology in the SM, and can also provide additional leverage in detecting new physics residing at higher scales.

Abstract Quantum entanglement is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics. Recently, studies have explored entanglement in the t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ system at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when both the top quark and anti-top quark decay leptonically. Entanglement is detected via correlations between the polarizations of the top and anti-top and these polarizations are measured through the angles of the decay products of the top and anti-top. In this work, we propose searching for evidence of quantum entanglement in the semi-leptonic decay channel where the final state includes one lepton, one neutrino, two b-flavor tagged jets, and two light jets from the W decay. We find that this channel is both easier to reconstruct and has a larger effective quantity of data than the fully leptonic channel. As a result, the semi-leptonic channel is 60% more sensitive to quantum entanglement and a factor of 3 more sensitive to Bell inequality violation, compared to the leptonic channel. In 139 fb −1 (3 ab−1) of data at the LHC (HL-LHC), it should be feasible to measure entanglement at a precision of ≲ 3% (0.7%). Detecting Bell inequality violation, on the other hand, is more challenging. With 300 fb−1 (3 ab−1) of integrated luminosity at the LHC Run-3 (HL-LHC), we expect a sensitivity of 1.3σ (4.1σ). In our study, we utilize a realistic parametric fitting procedure to optimally recover the true angular distributions from detector effects. Compared to unfolding this procedure yields more stable results.

Abstract Jet tagging is a classification problem in high-energy physics experiments that aims to identify the collimated sprays of subatomic particles, jets, from particle collisions and ‘tag’ them to their emitter particle. Advances in jet tagging present opportunities for searches of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Current approaches use deep learning to uncover hidden patterns in complex collision data. However, the representation of jets as inputs to a deep learning model have been varied, and often, informative features are withheld from models. In this study, we propose a graph-based representation of a jet that encodes the most information possible. To learn best from this representation, we design Particle Chebyshev Network (PCN), a graph neural network (GNN) using Chebyshev graph convolutions (ChebConv). ChebConv has been demonstrated as an effective alternative to classical graph convolutions in GNNs and has yet to be explored in jet tagging. PCN achieves a substantial improvement in accuracy over existing taggers and opens the door to future studies into graph-based representations of jets and ChebConv layers in high-energy physics experiments. Code is available at https://github.com/YVSemlani/PCN-Jet-Tagging

Abstract Recent advancements in deep learning models have significantly enhanced jet classification performance by analyzing low-level features (LLFs). However, this approach often leads to less interpretable models, emphasizing the need to understand the decision-making process and to identify the high-level features (HLFs) crucial for explaining jet classification. To address this, we consider the top jet tagging problems and introduce an analysis model (AM) that analyzes selected HLFs designed to capture important features of top jets. Our AM mainly consists of the following three modules: a relation network analyzing two-point energy correlations, mathematical morphology and Minkowski functionals for generalizing jet constituent multiplicities, and a recursive neural network analyzing subjet constituent multiplicity to enhance sensitivity to subjet color charges. We demonstrate that our AM achieves performance comparable to the Particle Transformer (ParT) while requiring fewer computational resources in a comparison of top jet tagging using jets simulated at the hadronic calorimeter angular resolution scale. Furthermore, as a more constrained architecture than ParT, the AM exhibits smaller training uncertainties because of the bias-variance tradeoff. We also compare the information content of AM and ParT by decorrelating the features already learned by AM. Lastly, we briefly comment on the results of AM with finer angular resolution inputs.

Abstract We study the effects of four-heavy-quark operators in the production of top quarks in the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) at the LHC. In particular, we compute for the first time the total contribution of the four-top-quark operator which enters only at the one-loop level in the top-quark pair production process. Analytical results at one-loop are presented for the gluon- and quark-initiated sub-processes, which allowed a first complete validation of the SMEFT@NLO in MadGraph5_aMC@NLO. The 95% CL bounds on four-heavy-quark operators from the available top-quark pair and four-top-quark production data are provided, which are complementary to other bounds found in the literature. We focus on the comparison of the sensitivities of the top-quark pair and the four-top-quark production processes, where in the latter case the four-top-quark operator contributes at tree-level. We conclude that the sensitivities of the two processes to four-heavy-quark operators are comparable. The projected sensitivities of both processes at HL-LHC are also presented.

Abstract We compute the two-loop master integrals for leading-color QCD scattering amplitudes including a closed light-quark loop in t t ¯ H $$ t\overline{t}H $$ production at hadron colliders. Exploiting numerical evaluations in modular arithmetic, we construct a basis of master integrals satisfying a system of differential equations in ϵ-factorized form. We present the analytic form of the differential equations in terms of a minimal set of differential one-forms. We explore properties of the function space of analytic solutions to the differential equations in terms of iterative integrals which can be exploited for studying the analytic form of related scattering amplitudes. Finally, we solve the differential equations using generalized series expansions to numerically evaluate the master integrals in physical phase space. As the first computation of a set of two-loop seven-scale master integrals, our results provide valuable input for analytic studies of scattering amplitudes in processes involving massive particles and a large number of kinematic scales.

Abstract The production of a Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop quark pair t t ¯ H $$ \left(t\overline{t}H\right) $$ holds significant importance in directly probing the top-quark Yukawa coupling, which is related to various fundamental questions in high energy physics. This paper focuses on the calculation of two-loop amplitudes for t t ¯ H $$ t\overline{t}H $$ production at hadron colliders in the high-energy boosted limit. The calculation employs our recently developed mass-factorization formula. To validate the accuracy of our approximate methods, we compare our results for the one-loop amplitudes and the two-loop infrared poles with the exact calculations. We then provide predictions for the finite parts of the two-loop amplitudes. By combining the contributions from real emissions, our results can be utilized to compute the next-to-next-to-leading order differential cross sections for t t ¯ H $$ t\overline{t}H $$ production in the high-energy boosted limit.

Abstract We compute for the first time the so-called complete NLO corrections to top-quark pair production with one and two isolated photons in the di-lepton top-quark decay channel. The Narrow Width Approximation is used for the modeling of unstable top quarks and W bosons. Higher-order QCD and EW effects as well as photon bremsstrahlung are consistently included at all stages: in production and top-quark decays. We present results at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section level for both processes for the LHC Run II center-of-mass energy of s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV. In addition, we investigate the scale choice in photonic observables. Finally, the individual size of each subleading contribution is discussed in detail and the origin of the main subleading corrections is scrutinised. For the latter case, alternative calculations are performed in which the subleading NLO corrections are included only in the production of t t ¯ γ $$ t\overline{t}\gamma $$ and t t ¯ γγ $$ t\overline{t}\gamma \gamma $$ .

Abstract We compute the differential equations for the two remaining integral topologies contributing to the leading colour two-loop amplitudes for pp → t t ¯ j $$ t\overline{t}j $$ . We derive differential equations for the master integrals by solving the integration-by-parts identities over finite fields. Of the two systems of differential equations, one is presented in canonical ‘d log’ form, while the other is found to have an elliptic sector. For the elliptic topology we identify the relevant elliptic curve, and present the differential equations in a more general form which depends quadratically on ε and contains non-logarithmic one-forms in addition to the canonical d log’s. We solve the systems of differential equations numerically using generalised series expansions with the boundary terms obtained using the auxiliary mass flow method. A summary of all one-loop and two-loop planar topologies is presented including the list of alphabet letters for the ‘d log’ form systems and high-precision boundary values.

We present the analytic total cross section of top quark pair production in electron-positron annihilation at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). By utilizing the optical theorem, the NNLO corrections are related to the imaginary parts of three-loop self-energy Feynman diagrams, of which the master integrals are calculated with canonical differential equations. The analytic results for the NNLO corrections are expressed in terms of multiple polylogarithms as well as elliptic functions. We discuss the asymptotic expansions near the threshold and in the high energy limit in detail. Numerical results are provided for the total cross section of top quark pair production at future lepton colliders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the quantum properties of top quark pairs in lepton colliders with unpolarised beams, including spin correlations, entanglement, and violation of Bell inequalities. We present analytical results in the SM and in the SMEFT and discuss several practical aspects, like the choice of quantisation axes and t t ¯ threshold effects. We also note a correspondence between parity symmetry and entanglement. We find that quantum observables exhibit a rich phenomenology in the SM, and can also provide additional leverage in detecting new physics residing at higher scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 60 years, particle physics has seen the maturation of its Standard Model and an enormous change in the character of the experiments that have defined it. I have had the good fortune to participate in and help shape this evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advancements in deep learning models have significantly enhanced jet classification performance by analyzing low-level features (LLFs). However, this approach often leads to less interpretable models, emphasizing the need to understand the decision-making process and to identify the high-level features (HLFs) crucial for explaining jet classification. To address this, we consider the top jet tagging problems and introduce an analysis model (AM) that analyzes selected HLFs designed to capture important features of top jets. Our AM mainly consists of the following three modules: a relation network analyzing two-point energy correlations, mathematical morphology and Minkowski functionals for generalizing jet constituent multiplicities, and a recursive neural network analyzing subjet constituent multiplicity to enhance sensitivity to subjet color charges. We demonstrate that our AM achieves performance comparable to the Particle Transformer (ParT) while requiring fewer computational resources in a comparison of top jet tagging using jets simulated at the hadronic calorimeter angular resolution scale. Furthermore, as a more constrained architecture than ParT, the AM exhibits smaller training uncertainties because of the bias-variance tradeoff. We also compare the information content of AM and ParT by decorrelating the features already learned by AM. Lastly, we briefly comment on the results of AM with finer angular resolution inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of a Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop quark pair t t ¯ H holds significant importance in directly probing the top-quark Yukawa coupling, which is related to various fundamental questions in high energy physics. This paper focuses on the calculation of two-loop amplitudes for t t ¯ H production at hadron colliders in the high-energy boosted limit. The calculation employs our recently developed mass-factorization formula. To validate the accuracy of our approximate methods, we compare our results for the one-loop amplitudes and the two-loop infrared poles with the exact calculations. We then provide predictions for the finite parts of the two-loop amplitudes. By combining the contributions from real emissions, our results can be utilized to compute the next-to-next-to-leading order differential cross sections for t t ¯ H production in the high-energy boosted limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effects of four-heavy-quark operators in the production of top quarks in the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) at the LHC. In particular, we compute for the first time the total contribution of the four-top-quark operator which enters only at the one-loop level in the top-quark pair production process. Analytical results at one-loop are presented for the gluon- and quark-initiated sub-processes, which allowed a first complete validation of the SMEFT@NLO in MadGraph5_aMC@NLO. The 95% CL bounds on four-heavy-quark operators from the available top-quark pair and four-top-quark production data are provided, which are complementary to other bounds found in the literature. We focus on the comparison of the sensitivities of the top-quark pair and the four-top-quark production processes, where in the latter case the four-top-quark operator contributes at tree-level. We conclude that the sensitivities of the two processes to four-heavy-quark operators are comparable. The projected sensitivities of both processes at HL-LHC are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute for the first time the so-called complete NLO corrections to top-quark pair production with one and two isolated photons in the di-lepton top-quark decay channel. The Narrow Width Approximation is used for the modeling of unstable top quarks and W bosons. Higher-order QCD and EW effects as well as photon bremsstrahlung are consistently included at all stages: in production and top-quark decays. We present results at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section level for both processes for the LHC Run II center-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV. In addition, we investigate the scale choice in photonic observables. Finally, the individual size of each subleading contribution is discussed in detail and the origin of the main subleading corrections is scrutinised. For the latter case, alternative calculations are performed in which the subleading NLO corrections are included only in the production of t t ¯ γ and t t ¯ γγ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute the two-loop master integrals for leading-color QCD scattering amplitudes including a closed light-quark loop in t t ¯ H production at hadron colliders. Exploiting numerical evaluations in modular arithmetic, we construct a basis of master integrals satisfying a system of differential equations in ϵ-factorized form. We present the analytic form of the differential equations in terms of a minimal set of differential one-forms. We explore properties of the function space of analytic solutions to the differential equations in terms of iterative integrals which can be exploited for studying the analytic form of related scattering amplitudes. Finally, we solve the differential equations using generalized series expansions to numerically evaluate the master integrals in physical phase space. As the first computation of a set of two-loop seven-scale master integrals, our results provide valuable input for analytic studies of scattering amplitudes in processes involving massive particles and a large number of kinematic scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compute the differential equations for the two remaining integral topologies contributing to the leading colour two-loop amplitudes for pp → t t ¯ j . We derive differential equations for the master integrals by solving the integration-by-parts identities over finite fields. Of the two systems of differential equations, one is presented in canonical ‘d log’ form, while the other is found to have an elliptic sector. For the elliptic topology we identify the relevant elliptic curve, and present the differential equations in a more general form which depends quadratically on ε and contains non-logarithmic one-forms in addition to the canonical d log’s. We solve the systems of differential equations numerically using generalised series expansions with the boundary terms obtained using the auxiliary mass flow method. A summary of all one-loop and two-loop planar topologies is presented including the list of alphabet letters for the ‘d log’ form systems and high-precision boundary values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jet tagging is a classification problem in high-energy physics experiments that aims to identify the collimated sprays of subatomic particles, jets, from particle collisions and ‘tag’ them to their emitter particle. Advances in jet tagging present opportunities for searches of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Current approaches use deep learning to uncover hidden patterns in complex collision data. However, the representation of jets as inputs to a deep learning model have been varied, and often, informative features are withheld from models. In this study, we propose a graph-based representation of a jet that encodes the most information possible. To learn best from this representation, we design Particle Chebyshev Network (PCN), a graph neural network (GNN) using Chebyshev graph convolutions (ChebConv). ChebConv has been demonstrated as an effective alternative to classical graph convolutions in GNNs and has yet to be explored in jet tagging. PCN achieves a substantial improvement in accuracy over existing taggers and opens the door to future studies into graph-based representations of jets and ChebConv layers in high-energy physics experiments. Code is available at https://github.com/YVSemlani/PCN-Jet-Tagging [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum entanglement is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics. Recently, studies have explored entanglement in the t t ¯ system at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when both the top quark and anti-top quark decay leptonically. Entanglement is detected via correlations between the polarizations of the top and anti-top and these polarizations are measured through the angles of the decay products of the top and anti-top. In this work, we propose searching for evidence of quantum entanglement in the semi-leptonic decay channel where the final state includes one lepton, one neutrino, two b-flavor tagged jets, and two light jets from the W decay. We find that this channel is both easier to reconstruct and has a larger effective quantity of data than the fully leptonic channel. As a result, the semi-leptonic channel is 60% more sensitive to quantum entanglement and a factor of 3 more sensitive to Bell inequality violation, compared to the leptonic channel. In 139 fb−1 (3 ab−1) of data at the LHC (HL-LHC), it should be feasible to measure entanglement at a precision of ≲ 3% (0.7%). Detecting Bell inequality violation, on the other hand, is more challenging. With 300 fb−1 (3 ab−1) of integrated luminosity at the LHC Run-3 (HL-LHC), we expect a sensitivity of 1.3σ (4.1σ). In our study, we utilize a realistic parametric fitting procedure to optimally recover the true angular distributions from detector effects. Compared to unfolding this procedure yields more stable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A search for violation of Lorentz invariance in the production of top quark pairs (tt‾) is presented. The measured normalized differential tt‾ production cross section, as a function of the sidereal time, is examined for potential modulations induced by Lorentz-invariance breaking operators in an effective field theory extension of the standard model (SM). The cross section is measured from collision events collected by the CMS detector at a center-of-mass-energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 77.8 fb−1, and containing one electron and one muon. The results are found to be compatible with zero, in agreement with the SM, and are used to place upper limits at 68% confidence level on the magnitude of the Lorentz-violating couplings ranging from 1–8×10−3. This is the first precision test of the isotropy in special relativity with top quarks at the LHC, restricting further the bounds on such couplings by up to two orders of magnitude with respect to previous searches conducted at the Tevatron.

Abstract Triggered by the observation of four top-quark production at the LHC by the ATLAS and CMS collaboration we report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the Standard Model process pp → t t ¯ t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t}t\overline{t} $$ in the 4ℓ top-quark decay channel. We take into account higher-order QCD effects in both the production and decays of the four top quarks. The latter effects are treated in the narrow width approximation, which preserves top-quark spin correlations throughout the calculation. We present results for two selected renormalisation and factorisation scale settings and three different PDF sets. Furthermore, we study the main theoretical uncertainties that are associated with the neglected higher-order terms in the perturbative expansion and with the parameterisation of the PDF sets. The results at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section level are shown for the LHC Run III center-of-mass energy of s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13.6 TeV. Our findings are particularly relevant for precise measurements of the four top-quark fiducial cross sections and for the modelling of top-quark decays at the LHC.

Abstract We study the LHC phenomenology of an Axion Like Particle (ALP) that couples only derivatively with the top quark at tree level. We inspect the radiatively induced couplings with the SM fermions and (gauge) bosons and the associated production and decay mechanisms of the ALP. We focus on the most challenging mass window that remains open for a top-philic ALP, i.e., the range between tens and hundreds of GeV. Not only ALP production processes but also virtual ALP contributions to final states with top quarks are considered in detail. We show how searches through resonant production, such as ALP production in association with a t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ pair, are complementary to precision measurements of t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ and t t ¯ t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t}t\overline{t} $$ final states, the latter being competitive or even more powerful for a top-philic ALP in this mass window. Finally, we explore the scenario where the top-philic ALP acts as a mediator to a dark-matter sector, resulting in missing energy signatures at the LHC. We find that the LHC constraints from t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ , t t ¯ t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t}t\overline{t} $$ and ALP + jet production, together with those from t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ + ALP production, can already exclude a large fraction of the parameter space leading to the correct relic abundance.

Abstract We study the top-Higgs coupling with a CP violating phase ξ at a future multi-TeV muon collider. We focus on processes that are directly sensitive to the top quark Yukawa coupling: t t ¯ h $$ t\overline{t}h $$ , tbhμν, and t t ¯ hν ν ¯ $$ t\overline{t} h\nu \overline{\nu} $$ with h → b b ¯ $$ h\to b\overline{b} $$ and semileptonic top decays. At different energies, different processes dominate the cross section, providing complementary information. At and above an energy of O 10 $$ \mathcal{O}(10) $$ TeV, vector boson fusion processes dominate. As we show, in the Standard Model there is destructive interference in the vector boson fusion processes t t ¯ hν ν ¯ $$ t\overline{t} h\nu \overline{\nu} $$ and tbhμν between the top quark Yukawa and Higgs-gauge boson couplings. A CP-violating phase changes this interference, and the cross section measurement is very sensitive to the size of the CP-violating angle. Although we find that the cross sections are measured to O 50 % $$ \mathcal{O}\left(50\%\right) $$ statistical uncertainty at 1σ, a 10 and 30 TeV muon collider can bound the CP-violating angle |ξ| ≲ 9.0° and |ξ| ≲ 5.4°, respectively. However, cross section measurements are insensitive to the sign of the CP-violating angle. To determine that the coupling is truly CP violating, observables sensitive to CP-violation must be measured. We find in the t t ¯ h $$ t\overline{t}h $$ process the azimuthal angle between the t + t ¯ $$ t+\overline{t} $$ plane and the initial state muon+Higgs plane shows good discrimination for ξ = ±0.1π. For the tbhμν and t t ¯ hν ν ¯ $$ t\overline{t} h\nu \overline{\nu} $$ processes, the operator proportional to p → μ × p → h $$ \left({\overrightarrow{p}}_{\mu}\times {\overrightarrow{p}}_h\right) $$ · p → t $$ {\overrightarrow{p}}_t $$ is sensitive to the sign of CP phase ξ. From these observables, we construct asymmetry parameters that show good distinction between different values and signs of the CP violating angle.

Abstract We present an in-depth analysis of axions and axion-like particles in top-pair production at the LHC. Our main goal is to probe the axion coupling to top quarks at high energies. To this end, we calculate the top-antitop cross section and differential distributions including ALP effects up to one-loop level. By comparing these predictions with LHC precision measurements, we constrain the top coupling of axion-like particles with masses below the top-antitop threshold. Our results apply to all UV completions of the ALP effective theory with dominant couplings to top quarks, in particular to DFSZ-like axion models.

Abstract We present numerical results for the two-loop virtual amplitude entering the NNLO corrections to Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair at the LHC, focusing, as a proof of concept of our method, on the part of the quark-initiated channel containing loops of massless or massive quarks. Results for the UV renormalised and IR subtracted two-loop amplitude for each colour structure are given at selected phase-space points and visualised in terms of surfaces as a function of two-dimensional slices of the full phase space.

Abstract The running of the top quark mass (m t) is probed at the next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics for the first time. The result is obtained by comparing calculations in the modified minimal subtraction ( $$\overline{{\text{MS}} }$$ ) renormalisation scheme to the CMS result on differential measurement of the top quark-antiquark ( $${\text{t}}\overline{{\text{t}} }$$ ) production cross section at $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV. The scale dependence of m t is extracted as a function of the invariant mass of the $${\text{t}}\overline{{\text{t}} }$$ system, up to an energy scale of about 0.5 TeV. The observed running is found to be in good agreement with the three-loop solution of the renormalisation group equations on quantum chromodynamics.

Triggered by the observation of four top-quark production at the LHC by the ATLAS and CMS collaboration we report on the calculation of the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the Standard Model process pp → t t ¯ t t ¯ in the 4ℓ top-quark decay channel. We take into account higher-order QCD effects in both the production and decays of the four top quarks. The latter effects are treated in the narrow width approximation, which preserves top-quark spin correlations throughout the calculation. We present results for two selected renormalisation and factorisation scale settings and three different PDF sets. Furthermore, we study the main theoretical uncertainties that are associated with the neglected higher-order terms in the perturbative expansion and with the parameterisation of the PDF sets. The results at the integrated and differential fiducial cross-section level are shown for the LHC Run III center-of-mass energy of s = 13.6 TeV. Our findings are particularly relevant for precise measurements of the four top-quark fiducial cross sections and for the modelling of top-quark decays at the LHC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the LHC phenomenology of an Axion Like Particle (ALP) that couples only derivatively with the top quark at tree level. We inspect the radiatively induced couplings with the SM fermions and (gauge) bosons and the associated production and decay mechanisms of the ALP. We focus on the most challenging mass window that remains open for a top-philic ALP, i.e., the range between tens and hundreds of GeV. Not only ALP production processes but also virtual ALP contributions to final states with top quarks are considered in detail. We show how searches through resonant production, such as ALP production in association with a t t ¯ pair, are complementary to precision measurements of t t ¯ and t t ¯ t t ¯ final states, the latter being competitive or even more powerful for a top-philic ALP in this mass window. Finally, we explore the scenario where the top-philic ALP acts as a mediator to a dark-matter sector, resulting in missing energy signatures at the LHC. We find that the LHC constraints from t t ¯ , t t ¯ t t ¯ and ALP + jet production, together with those from t t ¯ + ALP production, can already exclude a large fraction of the parameter space leading to the correct relic abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the top-Higgs coupling with a CP violating phase ξ at a future multi-TeV muon collider. We focus on processes that are directly sensitive to the top quark Yukawa coupling: t t ¯ h , tbhμν, and t t ¯ hν ν ¯ with h → b b ¯ and semileptonic top decays. At different energies, different processes dominate the cross section, providing complementary information. At and above an energy of O 10 TeV, vector boson fusion processes dominate. As we show, in the Standard Model there is destructive interference in the vector boson fusion processes t t ¯ hν ν ¯ and tbhμν between the top quark Yukawa and Higgs-gauge boson couplings. A CP-violating phase changes this interference, and the cross section measurement is very sensitive to the size of the CP-violating angle. Although we find that the cross sections are measured to O 50 % statistical uncertainty at 1σ, a 10 and 30 TeV muon collider can bound the CP-violating angle |ξ| ≲ 9.0° and |ξ| ≲ 5.4°, respectively. However, cross section measurements are insensitive to the sign of the CP-violating angle. To determine that the coupling is truly CP violating, observables sensitive to CP-violation must be measured. We find in the t t ¯ h process the azimuthal angle between the t + t ¯ plane and the initial state muon+Higgs plane shows good discrimination for ξ = ±0.1π. For the tbhμν and t t ¯ hν ν ¯ processes, the operator proportional to p → μ × p → h · p → t is sensitive to the sign of CP phase ξ. From these observables, we construct asymmetry parameters that show good distinction between different values and signs of the CP violating angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an in-depth analysis of axions and axion-like particles in top-pair production at the LHC. Our main goal is to probe the axion coupling to top quarks at high energies. To this end, we calculate the top-antitop cross section and differential distributions including ALP effects up to one-loop level. By comparing these predictions with LHC precision measurements, we constrain the top coupling of axion-like particles with masses below the top-antitop threshold. Our results apply to all UV completions of the ALP effective theory with dominant couplings to top quarks, in particular to DFSZ-like axion models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present numerical results for the two-loop virtual amplitude entering the NNLO corrections to Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair at the LHC, focusing, as a proof of concept of our method, on the part of the quark-initiated channel containing loops of massless or massive quarks. Results for the UV renormalised and IR subtracted two-loop amplitude for each colour structure are given at selected phase-space points and visualised in terms of surfaces as a function of two-dimensional slices of the full phase space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the usage of boosted as well as semi-boosted topologies in all-hadronic t t ̄ final states in simulated p p collisions at s = 1 4 TeV, with top quarks decaying into a boosted hadronic top-jet or a W-jet and an isolated b-jet. Correlations between selected kinematic variables and their shapes are studied for scalar and vector resonances decaying to a pair of top quarks, and also for a models of t t ̄ -associated production with an invisible dark matter particle pair. Stacked signal + background samples have been investigated in terms of the ability to resolve an excess of events over the Standard Model background in terms of the t t ̄ invariant mass, top quark transverse momentum and other 1D and 2D spectra using a parameterized detector simulation. A 2D extension of the BumpHunter algorithm is proposed, resulting in an improved signal sensitivity in specific 2D areas. We identify the most promising variables with the largest signal significance and smaller sensitivity to experimental uncertainties related to the jet energy calibration. We compare to statistical tests computing the background-only hypothesis compatibility and a likelihood fit of the signal strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searches for Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) stand at the forefront of experimental particle physics research, offering a sensitive probe to many scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model. The high proton–proton collision energy and luminosity provided by the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the excellent CMS detector performance allow for an extensive program of LFV searches. This paper reviews a broad range of LFV searches conducted at the CMS experiment using data collected in LHC Run 2, including τ → 3 μ  decays, Higgs boson decays, and top quark production and decays. In each analysis, the online and offline event selections, signal modeling, background suppression and estimation, and statistical interpretation are elucidated. These searches involve various final state particles in a large transverse momentum range, showcasing the capability of the CMS experiment in exploring fundamental questions in particle physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The running of the top quark mass (mt) is probed at the next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics for the first time. The result is obtained by comparing calculations in the modified minimal subtraction () renormalisation scheme to the CMS result on differential measurement of the top quark-antiquark () production cross section at = 13 TeV. The scale dependence of mt is extracted as a function of the invariant mass of the system, up to an energy scale of about 0.5 TeV. The observed running is found to be in good agreement with the three-loop solution of the renormalisation group equations on quantum chromodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract PELICAN is a novel permutation equivariant and Lorentz invariant or covariant aggregator network designed to overcome common limitations found in architectures applied to particle physics problems. Compared to many approaches that use non-specialized architectures that neglect underlying physics principles and require very large numbers of parameters, PELICAN employs a fundamentally symmetry group-based architecture that demonstrates benefits in terms of reduced complexity, increased interpretability, and raw performance. We present a comprehensive study of the PELICAN algorithm architecture in the context of both tagging (classification) and reconstructing (regression) Lorentz-boosted top quarks, including the difficult task of specifically identifying and measuring the W-boson inside the dense environment of the Lorentz-boosted top-quark hadronic final state. We also extend the application of PELICAN to the tasks of identifying quark-initiated vs. gluon-initiated jets, and a multi-class identification across five separate target categories of jets. When tested on the standard task of Lorentz-boosted top-quark tagging, PELICAN outperforms existing competitors with much lower model complexity and high sample efficiency. On the less common and more complex task of 4-momentum regression, PELICAN also outperforms hand-crafted, non-machine learning algorithms. We discuss the implications of symmetry-restricted architectures for the wider field of machine learning for physics.

Abstract The recent observation of entanglement between top and anti-top quarks at the LHC opens the way to interpreting collider data with quantum information tools. In this work we investigate the relevance of quantum observables in searches of new physics. To this aim, we study spin correlations of $$t\overline{t }$$ pairs originating from various intermediate resonances, and compare the discovery reach of quantum observables compared to classical ones. We find that they provide complementary information and, in several notable cases, also the additional leverage necessary to detect new effects.

Abstract We compute the one-loop corrections to gg → $$t\overline{t }H$$ up to order $$\mathcal{O}\left({\epsilon }^{2}\right)$$ in the dimensional-regularization parameter. We apply the projector method to compute polarized amplitudes, which generalize massless helicity amplitudes to the massive case. We employ a semi-numerical strategy to evaluate the scattering amplitudes. We express the form factors through scalar integrals analytically, and obtain separately integration by parts reduction identities in compact form. We integrate numerically the corresponding master integrals with an enhanced implementation of the Auxiliary Mass Flow algorithm. Using a numerical fit method, we concatenate the analytic and the numeric results to obtain fast and reliable evaluation of the scattering amplitude. This approach improves numerical stability and evaluation time. Our results are implemented in the Mathematica package TTH.

Abstract In this study, we critically evaluate the approximation capabilities of existing infra-red and collinear (IRC) safe feature extraction algorithms, namely Energy Flow Networks (EFNs) and Energy-weighted Message Passing Networks (EMPNs). Our analysis reveals that these algorithms fall short in extracting features from any N-point correlation that isn’t a power of two, based on the complete basis of IRC safe observables, specifically C-correlators. To address this limitation, we introduce the Hypergraph Energy-weighted Message Passing Networks (H-EMPNs), designed to capture any N-point correlation among particles efficiently. Using the case study of top vs. QCD jets, which holds significant information in its 3-point correlations, we demonstrate that H-EMPNs targeting up to N=3 correlations exhibit superior performance compared to EMPNs focusing on up to N=4 correlations within jet constituents.

Abstract Future muon colliders with center-of-mass energy of O $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (1 − 10) TeV can provide a clean high-energy environment with advantages in searches for TeV-scale axion-like particles (ALPs), pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with spontaneously broken global symmetries, which are widely predicted in physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). We exploit ALP couplings to SM fermions, and guided by unitarity constraints, build a search strategy focusing on the ALP decay to top quark pairs at muon colliders. It is found that a large parameter space of TeV-scale ALPs with TeV-scale decay constants can be probed by utilizing the ALP-top quark coupling.