Measurements of differential cross-sections in top-quark pair events with a high transverse momentum top quark and limits on beyond the Standard Model contributions to top-quark pair production with the ATLAS detector at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of top-quark pair production cross-sections at 13 TeV, compares them with theoretical models, and sets limits on potential new physics contributions using effective field theory.

Contribution

First measurement of differential top-quark pair cross-sections at high transverse momentum with detailed comparisons to advanced Monte Carlo models and EFT limits.

Findings

Fiducial cross-section measured as 1.267 pb with 4.2% total uncertainty.

Reweighting Monte Carlo improves data-theory agreement.

Limits set on Wilson coefficients of dimension-six operators.

Abstract

Cross-section measurements of top-quark pair production where the hadronically decaying top quark has transverse momentum greater than $355$ GeV and the other top quark decays into $\ell \nu b$ are presented using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS experiment during proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The fiducial cross-section at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is measured to be $\sigma = 1.267 \pm 0.005 \pm 0.053$ pb, where the uncertainties reflect the limited number of data events and the systematic uncertainties, giving a total uncertainty of $4.2\%$. The cross-section is measured differentially as a function of variables characterising the $t\bar{t}$ system and additional radiation in the events. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo generators, including comparisons where the generators are reweighted to match a parton-level calculation at next-to-next-to-leading order. The reweighting improves the agreement between data and theory. The measured distribution of the top-quark transverse momentum is used to set limits on the Wilson coefficients of the dimension-six operators $O_{tG}$ and $O_{tq}^{(8)}$ in the effective field theory framework.