THE $t\bar{t}\gamma$ BACKGROUND TO $pp\to W\gamma +X$ AT THE SSC

Abstract

We calculate the $pp\to t\bar{t}\gamma +X\to W\gamma +X$ cross section at SSC energies. Approximately 40\% of the total cross section originates from photon bremsstrahlung off the final state jet in $t\bar{t}j$ production. Without cuts restricting the hadronic activity, the $t\bar{t}\gamma$ rate is a factor 10 (2) larger than the tree level $W\gamma$ cross section for a top quark mass of 110~GeV (200~GeV). Imposing a jet veto cut, the $t\bar{t}\gamma$ rate can be suppressed to a level well below the $W\gamma +0$~jet signal cross section.

Comments: 8 pages, latex, 3embedded figures (uuencoded postscript files), to appear in the Proceedings of the Workshop ``Physics at Current Accelerators and the Supercollider'', Argonne National Laboratory, June~2 --~5, 1993, FSU-HEP-930830, BNL-49462