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arxiv: 2605.28147 · v1 · pith:YLPEY7RFnew · submitted 2026-05-27 · ✦ hep-ph · hep-ex

Sensitivity Analysis of the Top-Quark Sector

Fernando Cornet-Gomez , V\'ictor Miralles , Marcos Miralles L\'opez , Mar\'ia Moreno Ll\'acer , Marcel Vos This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-06-29 11:27 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ✦ hep-ph hep-ex
keywords top quarkSMEFTeffective operatorscollider sensitivityLHCHL-LHClepton collidersTevatron
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0 comments X

The pith

Top-quark SMEFT operators receive their strongest individual constraints from specific LHC and future collider measurements.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

This paper examines how well current and planned collider experiments can pin down the coefficients of effective operators involving the top quark in the SMEFT framework. The authors run a one-operator-at-a-time analysis on data from the Tevatron, LEP, and LHC Run 2, together with projections for the high-luminosity LHC and future lepton colliders. They determine which observables give the best limits on each operator. A reader would care because the results show where experimental effort should focus to test for new physics in the top sector. The work also forecasts how much sensitivity will improve at next-generation facilities.

Core claim

Using a one-operator-at-a-time analysis, the measurements from the Tevatron, LEP, and LHC Run 2, along with projections for the HL-LHC and future lepton colliders, identify the observables that provide the strongest individual constraints on top-quark SMEFT operators, clarifying their role and highlighting expected improvements at future facilities.

What carries the argument

One-operator-at-a-time sensitivity analysis of top-quark SMEFT operators to collider observables.

If this is right

  • LHC Run 2 data already provides strong constraints on several operators.
  • The HL-LHC is projected to improve these constraints substantially.
  • Future lepton colliders offer even greater sensitivity for certain operators.
  • This clarifies the role of specific observables in the top-quark SMEFT program.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • If operator interferences are significant, the ranked importance of observables could shift in a global fit.
  • The approach helps prioritize which measurements to improve experimentally.
  • Results can guide the design of future collider experiments targeting the top sector.

Load-bearing premise

Effects from multiple operators interfering with each other can be neglected when determining the sensitivity of each operator individually.

What would settle it

A measurement or combination of measurements that shows constraints inconsistent with the sum of the individual operator sensitivities from this analysis would falsify the utility of the one-at-a-time method.

read the original abstract

We study the sensitivity of current and future collider observables to top-quark SMEFT operators through a one-operator-at-a-time analysis. Using data from the Tevatron, LEP, and LHC Run~2, as well as projections for the HL-LHC and future lepton colliders, we identify the measurements that provide the strongest individual constraints. This approach clarifies the role of specific observables in the top-quark SMEFT program and highlights the significant improvement in sensitivity expected at future facilities.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

1 major / 0 minor

Summary. The manuscript presents a one-operator-at-a-time sensitivity analysis of top-quark SMEFT operators. Using data from the Tevatron, LEP, and LHC Run 2 together with projections for the HL-LHC and future lepton colliders, it identifies the measurements that furnish the strongest individual constraints on the relevant Wilson coefficients.

Significance. If the results hold, the work supplies a transparent baseline for the contribution of individual observables to top-quark SMEFT constraints and quantifies the expected gains at future facilities. The explicit one-at-a-time methodology is reproducible and can serve as a reference for subsequent global analyses.

major comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: the central claim that specific measurements provide the 'strongest individual constraints' rests on the one-operator-at-a-time procedure. Because several dimension-6 operators (O_{tG}, O_{tW}, O_{Qq}^{(3)}) enter the same processes (tt̄, single-top, W helicity) with non-zero linear and quadratic interference terms, the ranking obtained by setting all other coefficients to zero may change once those cross terms are restored; the manuscript should quantify or bound this effect to support the identification of strongest constraints.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

1 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their detailed review and constructive suggestion. Our response to the single major comment is provided below. We believe the one-operator-at-a-time scope is clearly stated in the manuscript and can be further clarified without altering the core analysis.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the central claim that specific measurements provide the 'strongest individual constraints' rests on the one-operator-at-a-time procedure. Because several dimension-6 operators (O_{tG}, O_{tW}, O_{Qq}^{(3)}) enter the same processes (tt̄, single-top, W helicity) with non-zero linear and quadratic interference terms, the ranking obtained by setting all other coefficients to zero may change once those cross terms are restored; the manuscript should quantify or bound this effect to support the identification of strongest constraints.

    Authors: The manuscript is explicitly framed as a one-operator-at-a-time sensitivity study, as indicated by the title, abstract, and methodology section. This procedure isolates the contribution of each Wilson coefficient when all others are set to zero, thereby identifying which observables furnish the strongest individual constraints under that assumption. The approach is presented as a transparent baseline and reference for subsequent global fits, consistent with the referee's significance assessment. We agree that restoring simultaneous non-zero coefficients would introduce interference effects that could modify the numerical ranking in a global analysis. However, quantifying or bounding those shifts would require performing a full multi-operator fit, which lies outside the stated scope of the present work. We will add a short clarifying sentence to the abstract and the opening of Section 2 stating that the reported strongest constraints are individual (one-at-a-time) and that interference terms are not included. This addresses the concern without changing the analysis itself. revision: partial

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity; direct sensitivity study on external data

full rationale

The paper conducts a one-operator-at-a-time sensitivity analysis using published measurements from Tevatron, LEP, LHC Run 2 and projections for future colliders. No derivation chain reduces a claimed prediction or constraint to a fitted input by construction, nor does any load-bearing step rely on self-citation of an unverified uniqueness result or ansatz. The method is explicitly an external-data sensitivity scan, self-contained against collider observables.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

Abstract provides no information on free parameters, axioms, or invented entities.

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Forward citations

Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Sensitivity to top-quark couplings in diboson production at lepton colliders

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    NLO EW corrections to WW production from SMEFT top operators yield competitive sensitivity at LEP3 and FCC-ee relative to ZH production and existing LEP/LHC bounds.

Reference graph

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