Single top quark photoproduction at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores single top quark photoproduction at the LHC, demonstrating its potential for electroweak studies and new physics searches, with sensitivity comparable to standard methods and improved limits on anomalous couplings.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis framework for single top photoproduction at the LHC, assessing its sensitivity and potential for detecting anomalous couplings beyond the Standard Model.

Findings

Sensitivity to |V_{tb}| comparable to standard methods with 10 fb^{-1}

Potential to set stronger limits on anomalous couplings with 1 fb^{-1}

Feasibility of observing flavor-changing neutral currents in photoproduction

Abstract

High-energy photon-proton interactions at the LHC offer interesting possibilities for the study of the electroweak sector up to TeV scale and searches for processes beyond the Standard Model. An analysis of the W associated single top photoproduction has been performed using the adapted MadGraph/MadEvent and CalcHEP programs interfaced to the Pythia generator and a fast detector simulation program. Event selection and suppression of main backgrounds have been studied. A comparable sensitivity to |V_{tb}| to those obtained using the standard single top production in pp collisions has been achieved already for 10 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity. Photoproduction at the LHC provides also an attractive framework for observation of the anomalous production of single top due to Flavour-Changing Neutral Currents. The sensitivity to anomalous coupling parameters, k_{tu\gamma} and k_{tc\gamma} is presented and indicates that stronger limits can be placed on anomalous couplings after 1 fb^{-1}.