Top quark pair cross section measurement at ATLAS

TL;DR

This paper discusses the methodology and prospects for measuring the top quark pair production cross section at the ATLAS experiment during early LHC operations, providing a test of the Standard Model with high statistical precision.

Contribution

It presents the initial measurement strategies and expected accuracy for the top quark pair cross section using ATLAS data in early LHC runs.

Findings

Expected high-statistics measurement of top pair cross section

Validation of Standard Model predictions at LHC energies

Feasibility of early measurements in single lepton and dilepton channels

Abstract

An accurate determination of the top quark pair production cross section at the LHC provides a valuable check of the Standard Model. Given the high statistics which will be available (about one top quark pair per second, at a luminosity of 10^33 cm^-2 s^-1), this check can be performed relatively fast after the turn on of the LHC. The prospects for measuring the total top quark pair cross section with the ATLAS detector during the initial period of LHC running will be presented here. The cross section is determined in the single lepton channel and in the dilepton channel.