Precision measurements of the top quark mass from the Tevatron in the pre-LHC era

Abstract

Abstract. The top quark is the heaviest of the six quarks of the Standard Model. Precise knowledge of its mass is important for imposing constraints on a number of physics processes, including interactions of the as yet unobserved Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the only missing particle of the Standard Model, central to the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and generation of particle masses. In this Review, experimental measurements of the top quark mass accomplished at the Tevatron, a proton-antiproton collider located at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, are described. Topologies of top quark events and methods used to separate signal events from background sources are discussed. Data analysis techniques used to extract information about the top mass value are reviewed. The combination of several most precise measurements performed with the two Tevatron particle detectors, CDF and DØ, yields a value of M t = 173.2 ± 0.9 GeV/c 2 .

Determination of the top quark mass circa 2013: methods, subtleties, perspectives

“…A major collection of experimental methods is available in [63]. Here we highlight a few that have already proven useful or appear to be promising:…”

Combination of the top-quark mass measurements from the Tevatron collider

“…Details of the analyses are therefore not repeated as this information is available in recent reviews [28], as well as in the publications of each of the results. We will, however, summarize the basic techniques used for the measurements.…”

Approaching the CDF Top Quark Mass Legacy Measurement in the Lepton+Jets channel with the Matrix Element Method

“…Any quantitative statement about the value of a quark mass must make careful reference to the particular theoretical framework that is used to define it. For example, in the overall fit of electroweak measurements the top quark mass needs to be expressed in the M S renormalization scheme [33] [58]. What is being measured in tt production experiments is the Monte Carlo-defined mass with whatever Monte Carlo (MC) is used to measure it, because the top mass is always determined from the data through the fit of some mass-dependent MC prediction.…”