The Top Quark - 2006 and Beyond

TL;DR

This paper reviews the status of top quark physics as of 2006, highlighting measurements at Fermilab, the potential for future discoveries at the LHC, and its role as a window into new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of top quark properties, experimental measurements, and prospects for future research at colliders, emphasizing its importance in exploring electroweak symmetry breaking.

Findings

Top quark mass measured to better than 2%

Production cross sections consistent with Standard Model

Single top production searches nearing observation

Abstract

We know there is new physics at the electroweak scale, but we don't know what it is. Right now, the top quark is our only window on to this physics. In almost all models of electroweak symmetry breaking, top either couples strongly to new particles or its properties are modified in some way. Top is being studied in detail at the Fermilab Tevatron. Its production cross section has been measured in a variety of channels; its mass has been determined to better than 2%, and can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs. Top quark decays have been tested and non-standard production mechanisms searched for. Single top production probes the electroweak properties of top, and has not yet been observed; searches are now closing in on this process and it should be seen soon. So far, all of the top quark's properties are consistent with the Standard Model. However, the data still to come at the Tevatron will increase the precision of all these measurements, and the enormous statistics available at the LHC will open up new possibilities such as observation of spin correlations and perhaps even CP violation in the top sector.