Probing New Physics using top quark polarization in the e+e- -> t t process at future Linear Colliders
Abstract
We investigate the sensitivity to new physics of the process e+e- -> t bart when the top polarization is analyzed using leptonic final states e+e- -> t t -> l+l- b b nul nul. We first show that the kinematical reconstruction of the complete kinematics is experimentally tractable for this process. Then we apply the matrix element method to study the sensitivity to the Vtt coupling (V being a vector gauge boson), at the tree level and in the narrow width approximation. Assuming the ILC baseline configuration, sqrtS=500 GeV, and a luminosity of 500 fb-1, we conclude that this optimal analysis allows to determine simultaneously the ten form factors that parameterize the Vtt coupling, below the percent level. We also discuss the effects of the next leading order (NLO) electroweak corrections using the GRACE program with polarized beams. It is found that the NLO corrections to different beam polarization lead to significantly different patterns of contributions.