Mousumi Datta (FNAL)

Tevatron Results on the Measurement of W-Boson Polarization in Top-quark Decay

The top quark is the most massive fundamental particle observed by experiment.

Due to its large mass, the top quark decays before forming a bound state and provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of a ``bare'' quark. In the Standard Model (SM) the top quark decays via the weak interaction into a W boson and a b quark most of the time, and the W boson is expected to have longitudinal, left-handed and right-handed polarization fractions of ~0.70, ~0.30 and 0.0, respectively. In beyond the SM scenarios, significant deviations from the SM expectation are possible due to the presence of anomalous couplings in the tWb vertex.

I will present the latest Tevatron results probing the tWb vertex and discuss future prospects at the Tevatron and the LHC.

Apr 3 at 4pm in Braunstein 301