Top quark production: Sensitivity to new physics

The production cross section and distributions of the top quark are sensitive to new physics; e.g., the $t\overline{t}$ system can be a probe of new resonances or gauge bosons that are strongly coupled to the top quark, in analogy with Drell-Yan production. The existence of such new physics is expected in dynamical electroweak symmetry-breaking schemes, and associated with the large mass of the top quark. The total top quark production cross section can be more than doubled, and distributions significantly distorted with a chosen scale of new physics of ∼ 1 TeV in the vector color singlet or octet $s$ channel. New resonance physics is most readily discernible in the high-$p_T$ distributions of the single top quark and of the $W$ boson, and the mass distribution of the $t\overline{t}$ pair.