Speaker
Description
We present a model-independent search for new particles decaying to top quark-antiquark pairs ($\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$) using 138 $\text{fb}^{-1}$ of pp collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded with the CMS detector during LHC Run 2. The search targets both resonant and non-resonant signatures in the spectrum of the invariant mass $m_{\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}}$.
Focusing on lepton+jets final states, we use novel top-tagging techniques to identify the hadronic decay of highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks. We further employ a deep neural network for event classification. Reconstructed $m_{\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}}$-distributions are used to derive constraints on various physics models predicting new particles decaying to $\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$, such as heavy resonances, Kaluza-Klein gluons, heavy Higgs bosons (including interference with the SM process), as well as non-resonant axion-like particles, extending the reach of earlier searches significantly.
