The Top Quark - 2006 and Beyond

Abstract

We know there is new physics at the electroweak scale, but we don't know what it is. Right now, the top quark is our only window on to this physics. In almost all models of electroweak symmetry breaking, top either couples strongly to new particles or its properties are modified in some way. Top is being studied in detail at the Fermilab Tevatron. Its production cross section has been measured in a variety of channels; its mass has been determined to better than 2%, and can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs. Top quark decays have been tested and non-standard production mechanisms searched for. Single top production probes the electroweak properties of top, and has not yet been observed; searches are now closing in on this process and it should be seen soon. So far, all of the top quark's properties are consistent with the Standard Model. However, the data still to come at the Tevatron will increase the precision of all these measurements, and the enormous statistics available at the LHC will open up new possibilities such as observation of spin correlations and perhaps even CP violation in the top sector.