Single Top Production as a Probe of Heavy Resonances

TL;DR

This paper explores how single top quark production can be used to detect and differentiate heavy resonances, such as new bosons or scalars, at the LHC by analyzing cross sections and kinematics.

Contribution

It presents various models of heavy resonances decaying to single top quarks and discusses their phenomenology for experimental searches.

Findings

Different models produce distinct cross sections and kinematic signatures.

Single top final states can effectively distinguish new physics from standard model backgrounds.

The study provides a framework for future resonance searches involving top quarks.

Abstract

The single top quark final state provides sensitivity to new heavy resonances produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Particularly, the single top plus quark final state appears in models with heavy charged bosons or scalars, or in models with flavor-changing neutral currents involving the top quark. The cross sections and final state kinematics distinguish such models from each other and from standard model backgrounds. Several models of resonances decaying to a single top quark final state are presented and their phenomenology is discussed.