Quarks, along with leptons and force carrying particles, are predicted by the Standard Model to be the fundamental constituents of nature. In distinction from the leptons, the quarks interact strongly through the chromodynamic force and are bound together within the hadrons. The familiar proton and neutron are bound states of the light ''up'' and ''down'' quarks. The most massive quark by far, the ''top'' quark, was discovered by the CDF and D0 experiments in March, 1995. The new quark was observed in p$ar{p}$ collisions at 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The mass of the top quark was measured to be 176 ± 13 GeV/c2 and the cross section 6.8$+3.6top{-2.4}$ pb. It is the Q = 2/3, T3 = +1/2 member of the third generation weak-isospin doublet along with the bottom quark. The top quark is the final Standard Model quark to be discovered. Along with whatever is responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking, top quark physics is considered one of the least understood sectors of the Standard Model and represents a front line of our understanding of particle physics. Currently, the only direct measurements of top quark properties come from the CDF and D0 experiments observing p$ar{p}$ collisions at the Tevatron. Top quark production at the Tevatron is almost exclusively by quark-antiquark annihilation, q$ar{q}$ → t$ar{t}$ (85%), and gluon fusion, gg → t$ar{t}$ (15%), mediated by the strong force. The theoretical cross-section for this process is ?t$ar{t}$ = 6.7 ± 0.8 pb for mt = 175 GeV/c2. Top quarks can also be produced at the Tevatron via q$ar{b}$' → tb and qg → q'tb through the weak interaction. The cross section for these processes is lower (3pb) and the signal is much more difficult to isolate as backgrounds are much higher. The top quark is predicted to decay almost exclusively into a W-boson and a bottom quark (t → Wb). The total decay width t → Wb is ? = 1.50 GeV. This corresponds to an incredibly short lifetime of 0.5 x 10-24 seconds. This happens so quickly that hadronization and bound states do not take place, which leads to the interesting consequence that the top quark spin information is passed to the decay products.

Quarks, along with leptons and force carrying particles, are predicted by the Standard Model to be the fundamental constituents of nature. In distinction from the leptons, the quarks interact strongly through the chromodynamic force and are bound together within the hadrons. The familiar proton and neutron are bound states of the light ''up'' and ''down'' quarks. The most massive quark by far, the ''top'' quark, was discovered by the CDF and D0 experiments in March, 1995. The new quark was observed in p{bar p} collisions at 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The mass of the top quark was measured to be 176 {+-} 13 GeV/c{sup 2} and the cross section 6.8{sub -2.4}{sup +3.6} pb. It is the Q = 2/3, T{sub 3} = +1/2 member of the third generation weak-isospin doublet along with the bottom quark. The top quark is the final Standard Model quark to be discovered. Along with whatever is responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking, top quark physics is considered one of the least understood sectors of the Standard Model and represents a front line of our understanding of particle physics. Currently, the only direct measurements of top quark properties come from the CDF and D0 experiments observing p{bar p} collisions at the Tevatron. Top quark production at the Tevatron is almost exclusively by quark-antiquark annihilation, q{bar q} {yields} t{bar t} (85%), and gluon fusion, gg {yields} t{bar t} (15%), mediated by the strong force. The theoretical cross-section for this process is {sigma}{sub t{bar t}} = 6.7 {+-} 0.8 pb for m{sub t} = 175 GeV/c{sup 2}. Top quarks can also be produced at the Tevatron via q{bar b}{prime} {yields} tb and qg {yields} q{prime}tb through the weak interaction. The cross section for these processes is lower (3pb) and the signal is much more difficult to isolate as backgrounds are much higher. The top quark is predicted to decay almost exclusively into a W-boson and a bottom quark (t {yields} Wb). The total decay width t {yields} Wb is {Lambda} = 1.50 GeV. This corresponds to an incredibly short lifetime of 0.5 x 10{sup -24} seconds. This happens so quickly that hadronization and bound states do not take place, which leads to the interesting consequence that the top quark spin information is passed to the decay products.

We measure the particle-level forward-backward production asymmetry in $\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ pairs with masses (m$\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$) larger than 150 GeV/c2, using events with hadronic jets and employing jet charge to distinguish b from $\bar{b}$. The measurement uses 9.5 fb-1 of $\mathrm{p\bar{p}}$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV recorded by the CDF II detector. The asymmetry as a function of m$\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ is consistent with zero, as well as with the predictions of the standard model. The measurement disfavors a simple model including an axigluon with a mass of 200 GeV/c2, whereas a model containing a heavier 345 GeV/c2 axigluon is not excluded.

The charge asymmetry in the production of top quark and antiquark pairs is measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb -1 were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Events with a single isolated electron or muon, and four or more jets, at least one of which is likely to have originated from hadronization of a bottom quark, are selected. A template technique is used to measure the asymmetry in the distribution of differences in the top quark and antiquark absolute rapidities. The measured asymmetry is Ayc= [0.33_0.26 (stat)_0.33 (syst)]%, which is the most precise result to date. The results are compared to calculations based on the standard model and on several beyond-the-standard-model scenarios.

This dissertation presents the final measurements of the forward-backward asymmetry (AFB) of top quark-antiquark pair events (t t- ) at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment. The t t- events are produced in proton{anti-proton collisions with a center of mass energy of 1:96 TeV during the Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron. The measurements are performed with the full CDF Run II data (9.1 fb-1) in the final state that contain two charged leptons (electrons or muons, the dilepton final state), and are designed to con rm or deny the evidence-level excess in the AFB measurements in the final state with a single lepton and hadronic jets (lepton+jets final state) as well as the excess in the preliminary measurements in the dilepton final state with the first half of the CDF Run II data. New measurements include the leptonic AFB (AlFB), the lepton-pair AFB (All FB) and the reconstructed top AFB (At t FB). Each are combined with the previous results from the lepton+jets final state measured at the CDF experiment. The inclusive Al FB, All FB, and At t FB measured in the dilepton final state are 0.072 ± 0.060, 0.076 ± 0.081, and 0.12 ± 0.13, to be compared with the Standard Model (SM) predictions of 0.038 ± 0.003, 0.048 ± 0.004, and 0.010 ± 0.006, respectively. The CDF combination of AlFB and At t FB are 0.090+0:028 -0.026, and 0.160 ± 0.045, respectively. The overall results are consistent with the SM predictions.

The subject of this thesis is the measurement of the rate at which a top-antitop quark pair is produced in pp collisions at a center of mass energy of ps = 1:96 TeV. The data are collected with the D detector, a multi-purpose detector operating at the Fermilab Tevatron collider during Run II. A measurement of the top quark pair (t$\bar{t}$) production cross section ( ?t$\bar{t}$) in p$\bar{p}$ collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV is presented. The measurement is based on data recorded by the D0 Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, and preselected in the e+jets (366 pb-1) and ?+jets (363 pb-1) channels. The cross section is extracted by applying a lifetime-tagging technique to the data, and yields ?t$\bar{t}$ = 6.96$+1.07\atop{-0.98}$(stat + syst) ± 0.45(lumi) pb; for a top quark mass mt =175 GeV, in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction.

A search is performed for top-quark pairs (tt¯) produced together with a photon (?) with transverse energy greater than 20 GeV using a sample of tt¯ candidate events in final states with jets, missing transverse momentum, and one isolated electron or muon. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.59 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In total, 140 and 222 tt¯? candidate events are observed in the electron and muon channels, to be compared to the expectation of 79 ± 26 and 120 ± 39 non-tt¯? background events, respectively. The production of tt¯? events is observed with a significance of 5.3 standard deviations away from the null hypothesis. The tt¯? production cross section times the branching ratio (BR) of the single-lepton decay channel is measured in a fiducial kinematic region within the ATLAS acceptance. The measured value is ?fidtt¯? × BR = 63 ± 8(stat)+17–13(syst) ± 1(lumi) fb per lepton flavor, in good agreement with the leading-order theoretical calculation normalized to the next-to-leading-order theoretical prediction of 48 ± 10 fb.