Probing the top-quark width through ratios of resonance contributions of $e^+e^-\rightarrow W^+W^-b\bar{b}$

Abstract

We exploit offshell regions in the process $e^+e^-\rightarrow W^+W^-b\bar{b}$ to gain access to the top-quark width. Working at next-to-leading order in QCD we show that carefully selected ratios of offshell regions to onshell regions in the reconstructed top and antitop invariant mass spectra are, \emph{independently} of the coupling $g_{tbW}$, sensitive to the top-quark width. We explore this approach for different centre of mass energies and initial-state beam polarisations at $e^+e^-$ colliders and briefly comment on the applicability of this method for a measurement of the top-quark width at the LHC.