Theory seminar (11am): Aditya Pathak : Using the W as a Standard Candle to Reach the Top

Thursday 27 Jun 2024, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Amsterdam

Colloquium Room

Precision measurements of the top quark mass at hadron colliders have been notoriously difficult. Energy-energy correlators (EECs) provide clean access to angular correlations in the hadronic energy flux, but their application to the precision mass measurements is less direct since they measure a dimensionless angular scale. Inspired by the use of standard candles in cosmology, I will show that a single EEC-based
observable can be constructed that reflects the characteristic angular scales of both the $W$-boson and top quark masses. This gives direct access to the dimensionless quantity $m_t/m_W$, from which the top mass can be extracted in a well-defined short-distance scheme as a function of the well-known $m_W$ and a purely angular measurement. I will
demonstrate several remarkable properties of this observable as well as its statistical feasibility and robustness for the LHC. This proposal provides a road map for a rich program for top mass determination at the LHC with record precision.