Paper detail

Probing New Physics using top quark polarization in the e+e- -> t \bar{t} process at future Linear Colliders

We investigate the sensitivity to new physics of the process e+e- -> t bar{t} when the top polarization is analyzed using leptonic final states e+e- -> t \bar{t} -> l+l- b \bar{b} nu_l \bar{nu}_l. We first show that the kinematical reconstruction of the complete kinematics is experimentally tractable for this process. Then we apply the matrix element method to study the sensitivity to the Vt\bar{t} coupling (V being a vector gauge boson), at the tree level and in the narrow width approximation. Assuming the ILC baseline configuration, sqrt{S}=500 GeV, and a luminosity of 500 fb^{-1}, we conclude that this optimal analysis allows to determine simultaneously the ten form factors that parameterize the Vt\bar{t} coupling, below the percent level. We also discuss the effects of the next leading order (NLO) electroweak corrections using the GRACE program with polarized beams. It is found that the NLO corrections to different beam polarization lead to significantly different patterns of contributions.