Top Physics with the ATLAS Detector

Speaker: Clare Bernard

When: December 15, 2011 (Thu), 02:00PM to 03:00PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 365

This event is part of the Preliminary Oral Exam.

Examining Committee:  Kevin Black, John Butler, Rama Bansil, Emanuel Katz   Abstract: In this talk I will discuss searches for new physics decaying to final states with top quarks at the LHC with the ATLAS detector. The large mass of the top suggests a strong coupling to the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking.  This motivates the search for new particles which could decay to top quarks. In particular I have studied the possibility of detecting final states with four tops. Final states coming from new physics such as this one have very different kinematic distributions from Standard Model top pair production, so I am also working on measuring the differential cross-section with respect to the transverse momentum of the top quark. This measurement would be sensitive to new production mechanisms such as new particles decaying to top pairs or new particles produced in association with top pairs. It is also important to understand this spectrum very well since top pair production is a large and important background for many new physics searches at the LHC.