== [http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?email=0&ida=a07179 Signaling the Arrival of the LHC Era]

Top Quark Physics at the LHC == === Authors === * Fabio Maltoni (lecturer) === Lectures === Find the pdf of the 2 x 1.5h lectures [attachment:cargese_lectures_top.pdf here] === References === * [http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/theory/webber/QCDbook.html QCD and Collider Physics] by Keith Ellis, James Stirling, Bryan Webber (Cambridge Monographs, 1996). General introduction QCD. The section on top is an easy and efficient reading to learn the basics. * [http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0003033 Top physics at the LHC], by Beneke et al. : A complete document, though a bit outdated, that covers many of the interestings studies that will be performed at the LHC. A very useful reference. * [http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.1333 Top Physics at the LHC], by Werner Bernreuther : A nice and up-to-date overview on top physics at the LHC. It has also a complete reference list that can be used for further studies. * [http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9612329 Top mass definition], by M. Smith and S.Willenbrock. This is an easy and very clear discussion that it will make you appreciate the subtleties associated to a meaningful definition of a mass of a quark. === Exercises === Decay * [:TopWidth:Top width]: Calculate the width of the top quark. * [:DeadCone:Radiation from heavy quarks]: the dead cone in %$e^+e^- \to Q \bar Q g$%. * [:TopDecaySpinCorrelations: W+ polarization in top decays]. Production * [:tt:top production] : %$t \bar t$% production and single top at Tevatron vs LHC. * [:scalar:scalar vs fermion top cross sections at hadron colliders] : Compare the production of scalar and fermion heavy color triplets in hadron collisions. * [:SpinCorr:Spin Correlations in top production] === Light material on the heaviest quark === * Movies * [http://madgraph.hep.uiuc.edu/Event/ Interactive Flash version] Note you may want to zoom in! * [http://madgraph.hep.uiuc.edu/Event/fast_collisionx6.avi Fast movie (.avi) of collision] * [http://madgraph.hep.uiuc.edu/Event/collision.mov Guided movie (.mov) of collision] * Review * [attachment:heavyweight.pdf Secrets of a heavyweight], by Kurt Riesselmann. === Familiarize with Software.MadGraph === A brief tutorial on Software.MadGraph / Software.MadEvent can be found [attachment:mad-tutorial.pdf here]. * Logon to the Software.MadGraph web site and register: http://madgraph.hep.uiuc.edu. * Familiarize with the code by generating a few processes in QED + QCD trying to guess which diagrams appear. * Look at the new physics models and check the particle and interactions content. * Generate events for a few selected processes and look at the plots: * ttbar production with decays: pp>tt~>bb~mu+e-ve~vm * Single top + Higgs: pp>tHj (QCD=0, QED=3, j=gudsc,p=gudscb). Show that there is a large negative interference between the diagrams. Analysis Tools * a Fortran-based package: Software.MadAnalysis ([http://madgraph.phys.ucl.ac.be/cgi-bin/NewProcess/download.cgi Download it here]) * a Mathematica-based package: [http://www.jthaler.net/olympics/software.html Chameleon]. === MC101 === For those interested in Monte Carlo techniques, here is a short Mathematica course with applications to top physics: * Write the simplest integration function based on the definition of average and error * Importance sampling via an analytic transformation * Von Neumann's rejection method : plain and improved * Phase space for 1 -> n particles * Vegas * Top decay : comparison among the various methods * qq -> tt production All exercises are presented and solved this Mathematica Notebook: [attachment:mc101.http://cp3wks05.fynu.ucl.ac.be/twiki/pub/Physics/TAE2008/mc101.nb mc101.nb]. Reference: [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/find/hep/www?eprint=hep-ph/0006269 Introduction to MC methods], by [http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~stefanw/ Stefan Weinzierl] -- Main.FabioMaltoni - 2010-07-21