Lepton distribution as a probe of new physics in production and decay of the t quark and its polarization

Abstract

We investigate the possibilities of studying new physics in various processes of t-quark production using kinematical distributions of the secondary lepton coming from decay of t quarks. We show that the angular distributions of the secondary lepton are insensitive to the anomalous tbW vertex and hence are pure probes of new physics in a generic process of t-quark production. The energy distribution of the lepton is distinctly affected by anomalous tbW couplings and can be used to analyze them independent of the production process of t quarks. The effects of t polarization on the distributions of the decay lepton are demonstrated for top-pair production process at a gamma-gamma collider mediated by a heavy Higgs boson.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, uses axodraw.sty (included), references added. v3 to appear in Journal of High Energy Physics. Incorporates minor changes in the discussion on radiative corrections which do not affect the results. Typo in reference correcte