LHC Detector Commissioning and Searches with the Top Quark

Note: Special High Energy Experiment Seminar, 3:30 PM
Speaker: Salvatore Rappoccio, Johns Hopkins University

When: March 4, 2010 (Thu), 03:30PM to 04:30PM (add to my calendar)

This event is part of the HEE Seminar Series.

Abstract: The top quark plays an important role at the LHC. Being a well-studied particle at Tevatron experiments, it serves as a useful benchmark to demonstrate the ability of the CMS detector to reconstruct complicated final-states that rely on coordinating the information from the entire CMS detector. Furthermore, new physics models that attempt to explain the electroweak symmetry breaking problem and the discrepancy between the electroweak and Planck scales often involve particles that decay to top quarks. Thus, understanding the top quarks produced from QCD and electroweak production leads directly to the ability to perform searches for a large number of models for new physics at the LHC.