Analysis of the top-quark charged-current coupling at the LHeC

Abstract

In the context of $SU(2)_L\times U(1)$ dimension six operators we study the potential of the LHeC to provide information on top quark effective interactions. We focus on single antitop production and how it is affected not only by the effective $tbW$ coupling but also by four-fermion operators. Compared to the LHC, the LHeC provides a cleaner environment to make a precise measurement of the top quark production cross section. Therefore, this machine would give a much better assesment of $V_{tb}$ in the context of the SM or $V_L$ in the context of higher dimension operators. The LHeC could also give a slightly better measurement for $V_R$. For $g_R$ the HL-LHC precise measurements of $F_L$ and $F_R$ (the $W$-boson helicity decay ratios of top) would yield better constraints than those obtained by the LHeC. Lepton-quark contact interactions would also be significantly better probed by the LHeC, since the only way of measuring them at the LHC would be through leptonic top decay which is hardly sensitive to these interactions.