Top quarks as a probe to quantum information

Abstract

Top quark pairs produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provide a unique window into quantum information theory at high energies. One of the most ubiquitous measurements of quantum information is the violation of Bell's inequality. We explore what would be necessary to observe a violation of Bell's inequality and the dependence of this on the initial state of the top quark pair. Furthermore, we show how a more general application of quantum information theory in the realm of quantum computing can be leveraged to perform offline reconstruction of primary vertices. We perform some optimizations of the running parameters of the quantum annealer and compare them to a non-optimized performance. Lastly, we discuss the future outlook of both these topics and the steps to be taken.