== [http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?email=0&ida=a07179  Signaling the Arrival of the LHC Era] [[br]][[br]] 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 : A complete document, though a bit outdated, that covers many of the interestings studies that will be performed at the LHC.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

   * [wiki:TopWidth Top width]: Calculate the width of the top quark.
   * [wiki:DeadCone Radiation from heavy quarks]: the dead cone in $e^+e^- \to Q \bar Q g$.
   * [wiki:TopDecaySpinCorrelations  W+ polarization in top decays].

Production

   * [wiki:Tt top production] : $t \bar t$ production and single top at Tevatron vs LHC.
   * [wiki:Scalar scalar vs fermion top cross sections at hadron colliders] : Compare the production of scalar and fermion heavy color triplets in hadron collisions.
   * [wiki: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