Azimuthal correlations in top pair decays and the effects of new heavy scalars

Abstract

We present the azimuthal correlations in the decay products of the top quark pair created in the process $gg\ensuremath{\rightarrow}t\overline{t}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}b\overline{b}{W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ calculated in leading-order QCD. We then discuss deviations in this distribution that could arise from new physics contributions, focusing, in particular, on the case of a new heavy scalar coupling to the top quark and produced via the gluon fusion mechanism. Within this scenario, we consider two cases: one in which the top quark is the only particle with a significant coupling to the scalar and another in which there are additional heavy fermions that modify the effective coupling of the scalar to gluons. We discuss the effects on the overall cross section and azimuthal correlations of the top quark decay products, with particular emphasis on the effect of interference between the QCD and new physics contributions and on the existence of $CP$-nonconserving couplings.