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What do we believe the top quark to be in the Standard Model?

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

What do we believe the top quark to be in the Standard Model? Is the new particle discovered in 1994 the top quark? How much do we actually know about it? Ten years later, these questions are still nagging us. While we have an expectation for what the top quark should be, and no evidence that it's anything other than that, we know surprisingly little about this heavy fermion. Some models e.g. predict that it is actually charge -4/3 instead of +2/3, which is not yet measured. Other models propose that there could be some new state contaminating the top sample. I highlight the prospects for pulling back the curtain on the top quark in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron.

Authors

  • David Rainwater

    Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester