Measuring Top-Quark Polarization in Top-Pair + Missing Energy Events

Understand

The polarization of a top-quark can be sensitive to new physics beyond the standard model.

• We propose a novel method to measure top-quark polarization, based on the charged lepton energy fraction in top-quark decay, and illustrate the method with a detailed simulation of top-quark pairs produced in supersymmetric top squark pair production.
• We show that the lepton energy ratio distribution that we define is very sensitive to the top-quark polarization but insensitive to the precise measurement of the top-quark energy.