Extracting the Top-Quark Width from Nonresonant Production
Christian Herwig (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA); Tomáš Ježo (Physics Institute, Universität Zürich, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland); Benjamin Nachman (Physics Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA)
In the context of the standard model of particle physics, the relationship between the top-quark mass and width () has been precisely calculated. However, the uncertainty from current direct measurements of the width is nearly 50%. A new approach for directly measuring the top-quark width using events away from the resonance peak is presented. By using an orthogonal dataset to traditional top-quark width extractions, this new method may enable significant improvements in the experimental sensitivity in a method combination. Recasting a recent ATLAS differential cross section measurement, we find ( expected), providing the most precise direct measurement of the width.
