Top-quark pair production close to threshold: Top-quark mass, width, and momentum distribution

Abstract

The complete next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) QCD corrections to the total cross section $\ensuremath{\sigma}{(e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{Z}^{*},{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{*}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}t\overline{t}),$ in the kinematic region close to the top-quark--top-antiquark threshold, are calculated by solving the corresponding Schr\"odinger equations exactly in momentum space in a consistent momentum cutoff regularization scheme. The corrections coming from the same NNLO QCD effects to the top-quark three-momentum distribution $d\ensuremath{\sigma}/d|{k}_{t}|$ are determined. We discuss the origin of the large NNLO corrections to the peak position and the normalization of the total cross section observed in previous works and propose a new top-quark mass definition, the $1S$ mass ${M}_{1S},$ which stabilizes the peak in the total cross section. If the influence of beamstrahlung and initial state radiation on the mass determination is small, a theoretical uncertainty on the $1S$ top-quark mass measurement of 200 MeV from the total cross section at the linear collider seems possible. We discuss how well the $1S$ mass can be related to the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ mass. We propose a consistent way to implement the top-quark width at NNLO by including electroweak effects into the NRQCD matching coefficients, which can then become complex.