Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Top-quark pair production at the LHC provides a bipartite spin system whose correlations are imprinted in the angular distributions of the decay products and can be studied with quantum-information tools. We investigate whether this spin structure can be used to probe invisible new physics in $pp\to t\bar t+X$, where $X$ is a spin-0 or spin-1 mediator motivated by top-philic simplified dark-matter models. Focusing on the dileptonic channel at the High-Luminosity LHC, we compare the sensitivity of the inclusive event yield, the visible invariant-mass distribution, an event-level estimator of the entanglement marker $D$, and the fiducial spin correlation $\mathcal{D}$ measured as a function of the visible invariant mass. We find that observables retaining spin information improve the expected exclusion sensitivity with respect to rate and kinematic information alone, with $\mathcal{D}(M_{t\bar t}^{\rm vis})$ providing the strongest reach for both mediator spins. The same observables also enhance the discrimination between scalar and pseudoscalar couplings of the spin-zero mediator, with $\mathcal{D}(M_{t\bar t}^{\rm vis})$ again providing the strongest sensitivity, particularly at larger mediator masses. These results show that quantum-information-motivated observables of the $t\bar t$ system can be efficient tools to probe both the presence of invisible new physics and the structure of its couplings to top quarks.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1855990336, G2064873908, G2309174360, G2462415295, G252646220, G2660406951, G3005324705, G303715510, G3320050967, G3427743928, G3518538256, G3546882995, G4033910280, G410571670, G430777504, G451917667, G4744355279, G4762216095, G5195188938, G5421974903, G5539308778, G5967599077, G6218905885, G65155225, G6656126374, G745419941, G7981279683, G8888022036, G99296377
OpenAlex ID: W7214681308