Angular correlations in t-channel single top production at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential to measure angular correlations in single top quark production at the LHC, analyzing the effects of various theoretical and experimental factors using MC@NLO simulations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed study of angular correlations in t-channel single top production, assessing their robustness under different conditions and spin bases.

Findings

Angular correlations are significant in top decay.

Correlation strength varies with spin basis.

Robustness against PDFs and scale uncertainties is demonstrated.

Abstract

When a top quark decays there is a large amount of angular correlation, in its rest frame, between its spin orientation and the direction of flight of the charged lepton from its decay. In this letter we investigate the prospects of measuring this angular correlation using the MC@NLO framework. The strength of the correlation is investigated for different spin bases. The robustness against variations of PDF sets and uncertainties, factorization scale dependence, center-of-mass energy, and the jet R-parameter, is also examined.