Ensuring that toponium is glued, not nailed

Hints of toponium might be incipient in LHC data, as given the vast numbers of t quarks produced, some survive on the exponential-decay tail long enough to fasten tt¯ together. I here discuss a few differences between the standard Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) binding (the “glue”) and exotic short-ra...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-07-01
Series:Physics Letters B
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269325002710
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Summary:Hints of toponium might be incipient in LHC data, as given the vast numbers of t quarks produced, some survive on the exponential-decay tail long enough to fasten tt¯ together. I here discuss a few differences between the standard Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) binding (the “glue”) and exotic short-range binding (the “nail”). If the binding energy below threshold reaches the 3 GeV range the peak of the ηt is distinct enough that a cross-section dip should be apparent in the line shape, should there only be one isolated resonance, but is filled by the excited QCD states adding about a pbarn to the cross section of tt¯ production. Their effect for smaller binding energies is a tenuous increase in the cross section. A new-physics short-range interaction, on the other hand, yields a larger cross-section for equal binding energy (or hardly a visible bound state for similar cross section). This is due to its larger tt¯ relative wavefunction at small distances. Finally, assuming that standard QCD plays out, I comment on what size of constraints on new-physics coefficients one can expect at given precision.
ISSN:0370-2693