title: Top-quark pairs at high invariant mass: a model-independent discriminator of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider.
abstract: We study top-quark pair production to probe new physics at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We propose reconstruction methods for tt[over] semileptonic events and use them to reconstruct the tt[over] invariant mass. The angular distribution of top quarks in their c.m. frame can determine the spin and production subprocess for each new physics resonance. Forward-backward asymmetry and CP-odd variables can be constructed to further delineate the nature of new physics. We parametrize the new resonances with a few generic parameters and show high invariant mass top pair production may provide an early indicator for new physics beyond the standard model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. barger@physics.wisc.edu
authors.forename: Vernon
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Barger
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Devin G E
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Walker