Top physics at the LHC

Abstract

Since its discovery at Tevatron in 1995, the top quark has been studied with an increasing level of precision by the CDF and D0 experiments. However most of the measurements are still statistically limited and larger top samples are needed to open a window on new physics.

A new collider, the Large Hadron Collider, under construction at CERN, will soon provide about 8 millions of top-antitop events in one year at low luminosity, giving a new opportunity for precision measurements of the top quark properties.

Prior to the precise top quark properties measurements, requiring detailed knowledge of the detector response and the understanding of the possible sources of systematic uncertainties, the top-antitop events will be used form the very early data taking period in commissioning phase, allowing the understanding of the detector response to different physics objects and a preliminary investigation of top quark mass measurement.