Speaker
Dr
Sara Strandberg
(LBNL)
Description
Top quarks are expected to be produced copiously at the LHC, even at the lower
beam energy and luminosity expected in the first year of running. Establishing the
top-pair signal and measuring the production cross-section will be important
benchmarks for ATLAS, which will also help understand the detector performance
for events with high-pT leptons, high jet multiplicity, missing transverse energy and
b-jets. With more data, the single top production process will also become
observable, allowing detailed studies of electroweak top quark production and
measurement of the CKM matrix element Vtb. The prospects for these early top
physics measurements will be shown, with a particular emphasis on the progress
achieved with data so far.
The top quark is unique in the Standard Model by virtue of its large mass, possible
role in electroweak symmetry breaking, and rapid decay without forming bound
states. Precise measurements of its properties offer both sensitive tests of the
Standard Model and possible pathways to discovering new physics, and are an
important and challenging part of the ATLAS physics program. The prospects for
measurements of the top quark mass, top quark decay properties such as
polarization, spin correlations and anomalous couplings, and rare top decays
signaling beyond-Standard Model physics, will be described
The first measurement of the production cross-sections for W and Z bosons in proton proton
interactions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are reported from the ATLAS experiment. Based
on its excellent capability for reconstructing both high pT electrons and muons, the
electron and the muon decay modes of the W/Z bosons are compared. First results for
the ratio of W/Z production and of W+/W- production will also be described.
Primary author
Dr
Sara Strandberg
(LBNL)
