The Truth the Top Quark is Hiding

The existence of the top quark, by far the heaviest observed fundamental particle, is beyond any doubt now. Top quarks are copiously produced at the Fermilab Tevatron, and the properties of the top quark are being measured with increasing precision. Due to its large mass the final products of top quark decays are very energetic, similar to those from decays of new exotic particles that we hope to discover. Intriguingly, some of such exotic phenomena can have the same experimental event signatures, barely distinguishable from top. I will present recent results from CDF on searches for new physics processes, such as production of 4-th generation, supersymmetric and exotic mirror quarks, that could mimic top event signatures and be accessible at Tevatron energies.

Date:  Thursday, October 23, 2008
Physics Conference Room
Time: 2:00 PM