Unitarity constraints on anomalous top quark couplings to weak gauge bosons

Abstract

If there is new physics associated with the top quark, it could show up as anomalous couplings of the top quark to weak gauge bosons, such as $\mathrm{Zt}\overline{t}$ and $\mathrm{Wt}\overline{b}$ vector and axial-vector couplings. We use the processes $t\overline{t}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{Z}^{0}{Z}^{0}$, $t\overline{t}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, and $t\overline{t}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{Z}^{0}H$ to obtain the unitarity constraints on these anomalous couplings, and combine these constraints with those from precision electroweak data. The unitarity constraints can impose additional limits on the anomalous couplings when the scale of new physics is as low as 2 TeV. A nonzero measurement of such an anomalous coupling leads to an upper limit on the new physics scale from the unitarity condition.