Single top quark production as a window to physics beyond the standard model

Production of single top quarks at a high energy hadron collider is studied as a means to identify physics beyond the standard model related to the electroweak symmetry breaking. The sensitivity of the s-channel $W^{*}$ mode, the t-channel W-gluon fusion mode, and the ${\mathrm{tW}}^{-}$ mode to various possible forms of new physics is assessed, and it is found that the three modes are sensitive to different forms of new physics, indicating that they provide complimentary information about the properties of the top quark. Polarization observables are also considered, and found to provide potentially useful information about the structure of the interactions of top quarks.