Beyond $M_{t\bar{t}}$: learning to search for a broad $t\bar{t}$ resonance at the LHC

Abstract

A resonance peak in the invariant mass spectrum has been the main feature of a particle at collider experiments. However, broad resonances not exhibiting such a sharp peak are generically predicted in new physics models beyond the Standard Model. Without a peak, how do we discover a broad resonance at colliders? We use machine learning technique to explore answers beyond common knowledge. We learn that, by applying deep neural network to the case of a $t\bar{t}$ resonance, the invariant mass $M_{t\bar{t}}$ is still useful, but additional information from off-resonance region, angular correlations, $p_T$, and top jet mass are also significantly important. As a result, the improved LHC sensitivities do not depend strongly on the width. The results may also imply that the additional information can be used to improve narrow-resonance searches too. Further, we also detail how we assess machine-learned information.

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures, version to appear at EPJC