Searches for top-antitop quark resonances at $\sqrt{s}=13~\mathrm{TeV}$ with the CMS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on the first search for new heavy resonances decaying into top-antitop pairs at 13 TeV using CMS data, employing advanced techniques for boosted top quark identification, and sets exclusion limits due to no observed excess.

Contribution

It introduces novel analysis methods for detecting high-mass $t\bar{t}$ resonances and provides the first results at 13 TeV with the CMS detector.

Findings

No significant excess observed over the Standard Model background.

Exclusion limits set on $t\bar{t}$ resonance cross sections.

Techniques for identifying highly-boosted top quarks are demonstrated.

Abstract

We present the first results on searches for new massive resonances decaying to a top-antitop quark ($t\bar{t}$) pair with the CMS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions with a center of mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13~\mathrm{TeV}$. The data set considered corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $2.6~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ recorded during the the first year of the LHC Run-2. Searches are performed by measuring the invariant mass distribution of the $t\bar{t}$ system in semileptonic and fully-hadronic final states. Dedicated techniques are used to identify the decay of highly-boosted top quarks in order to maximize the analyses' sensitivity for $t\bar{t}$ resonances with a mass above the TeV scale. No significant excess is observed in the data compared to the expected SM background and exclusion limits are set on the cross section of a $t\bar{t}$ resonance in various new physics scenarios.