Quantum SMEFT tomography: top quark pair

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum entanglement measurements in top quark pairs at the LHC can reveal deviations from the Standard Model, potentially indicating new physics within the SMEFT framework.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to probe fundamental interactions and search for new physics using quantum entanglement in top quark pairs at high energies.

Findings

Entanglement patterns depend on kinematic configurations.

New interactions modify Standard Model entanglement expectations.

Analytical calculations reveal non-trivial effects.

Abstract

In recent years, an interest in the study of quantum information has grown within the high-energy particle physics community. The possibility to establish the presence of entanglement at particle colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, is a novel and thrilling research direction, offering the opportunity to push quantum mechanics to its limits by using the heaviest fundamental particle: the top quark. With this in mind, we propose to use measurements of quantum entanglement to probe the behaviour of fundamental interactions and to search for New Physics at high energy within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory paradigm. Inspired by recent proposals to measure entanglement of top quark pairs produced at the LHC, we examine how the existence of new interactions between fundamental particles modify the Standard Model expectations. By performing analytical calculations, we unveil a non-trivial pattern of effects depending on the kinematical phase space configurations.