A New Paradigm for High-Precision Top Mass and Jet Substructure Measurements at the LHC

Introduction

We are in the era of precision collider physics where a major challenge is to accurately describe the effects of the strong interactions. The precise determination of the top quark mass is one of the most important measurements in particle physics: it is crucial for indirect searches for new physics and the analysis of the stability of the universe.

Challenges in Measurement

Currently, the measurement is plagued by theoretical imprecision, including an over-reliance on Monte Carlo simulations and the lack of a systematically improvable treatment of the physics of hadronization (the process by which quarks and gluons are bound into color-neutral hadrons). The same limitations also impact essentially all jet substructure measurements. This includes measurements of the strong coupling, which is another fundamental parameter of the Standard Model.

With the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the horizon, addressing these problems becomes exceptionally timely and critical.

Objectives of TOPMASS

TOPMASS will overcome these problems by:

1. Capitalizing on the PI's recent groundbreaking work to exploit Energy-Energy Correlators as a top mass-sensitive probe leading to a new paradigm.
2. Exploiting modern effective field theory methods for developing a model-independent framework to describe hadronization, enabling precise jet substructure determination of the top mass and the strong coupling. This avoids the systematic uncertainty from the usage of hadronization models.

It will have immediate applicability to a wide range of precision QCD measurements.

Key Outcomes

The key outcomes of TOPMASS will be:

1. High-precision computations that enable a sub-GeV top mass measurement at the LHC in a field-theoretic scheme.
2. A systematic data-driven approach for describing hadronization effects in modern jet substructure observables.