NEW METHOD TO DETECT A HEAVY TOP QUARK AT THE FERMILAB TEVATRON

We present a new method to detect a heavy top quark with mass 180 GeV at the upgraded Fermilab Tevatron (S=2 TeV and integrated luminosity 100 pb-1) and the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) via the W-gluon fusion process. We show that an almost perfect efficiency for the "kinematic b tagging" can be achieved due to the characteristic features of the transverse momentum PT and rapidity Y distributions of the spectator quark which emitted the virtual W. Hence, we can reconstruct the invariant mass Meb and see a sharp peak within a 5-GeV-wide bin of the Meb distribution. We conclude that more than one year of running is needed to detect a 180-GeV top quark at the upgraded Tevatron via the W-gluon fusion process. Its detection becomes easier at the SSC due to a larger event rate. © 1990 The American Physical Society.