The top-quark mass: challenges in definition and determination

Abstract

The top-quark mass is a parameter of paramount importance in particle physics, playing a crucial role in the electroweak precision tests and in the stability of the Standard Model vacuum. I will discuss the main strategies to extract the top-quark mass at the LHC and the interpretation of the measurements in terms of well-posed top-mass definitions, taking particular care about renormalon ambiguities, progress in Monte Carlo event generators for top physics and theoretical uncertainties.

Comments: 26 pages, 2 figures. Invited review for the research topic `From the Fermi scale to Cosmology' in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, section High-Energy and Astroparticle Physics. Subsection on measurement interpretation expanded, a few references added