Dr. Joshuha Thomas-Wilsker

The long shutdown is well under way but physicists at the LHC are still sifting through the huge datasets containing the latest proton-proton collisions (aka the Run 2 dataset). Having already achieved one of the main physics goals of the LHC in 2012, namely the discovery of the Higgs boson, the goal now is to corroborate whether or not the observed 125 GeV resonance is as described in the Standard Model. Two properties essential to our understanding are the production rate (cross-section) and couplings to other particles. Given the predicted fermionic couplings are proportional to the fermion mass, the Top quark coupling (Top Yukawa coupling), the most massive fermion, is of particular interest.

During this seminar we will look at the importance and challenges of studying the Top quark pair associated production of the Higgs boson. Such events are extremely rare but allow us to directly probe the Top Yukawa coupling. We will look back at the latest and greatest measurements using the partial Run 2 dataset and the innovative techniques used to overcome the difficulties of these analyses. We will also look forward to what we expect to achieve using the full Run 2 dataset and what there is still left to learn from these measurements during Run 3 and beyond.

Location: T125