Physics of Single-Top Quark Production at Hadron Colliders

Abstract

We discuss the physics of single-top quark production and decay at hadron colliders, such as the Tevatron, the \tevstar~and the LHC. Our study includes how to measure the mass and the width of the top quark produced from a {\hbox{single-$t$}} or a single-$\bar{t}$ process. We also show how to probe new physics by studying the couplings of $t$-$b$-$W$ and show what can be improved from measuring the production rate of single-top events. We also discuss how to probe CP properties of the top quark by measuring the single-top production rate. Finally, we present a Monte Carlo study on the detection of single-top events in hadron collisions.

Comments: Thesis, 102 pages, Latex, needs 45 figures (not included). All Tex files and the associated analysis package ONETOP may be obtained via anonymous ftp at ftp://cteq14.pa.msu.edu/pub/carlson_d/