ATLAS sensitivity to Wtb anomalous couplings in top quark decays

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of the ATLAS experiment to Wtb anomalous couplings in top pair production with semileptonic decay, pp→tt̄→W+bW-b̄ with one of the W bosons decaying leptonically and the other hadronically. Several observables are examined, including the W helicity fractions and new quantities recently introduced, such as the ratios of helicity fractions and some angular asymmetries defined in the W rest frame. The dependence on anomalous couplings of all these observables has been previously obtained. In this work we show that some of the new observables also have smaller systematic uncertainties than the helicity fractions, with a similar or stronger dependence on anomalous couplings. Consequently, their measurement can significantly improve the limits on anomalous couplings. Moreover, the most sensitive measurements can be combined. In this case, the precision achieved in the determination of Wtb anomalous couplings can be of a few percent in the semileptonic channel alone.