Spin Correlation Effects in Top Quark Pair Production

Abstract

An analysis of the spin correlation effects in top quark pair production at hadron colliders is presented with special emphasis for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the LHC top quark pair production is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion. For gluon-gluon fusion at high energies the production is dominated by unlike helicity gluon fusion which has the same spin correlations as quark-antiquark annihilation. At low energies the production is dominated by like helicity gluon fusion which imparts very strong azimuthal correlations on the di-lepton decay products in top quark pair decay. This production process is studied in detail and this suggest a new way to look for spin correlations in top quark pair production at the LHC.