Particle physics deals with the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions. The vast number of subatomic particles can be reduced to twelve fundamental fermions, which interact by the exchange of spin-1 particles as described in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. The SM provides the best description of the subatomic world to date, despite the fact it does not include gravitation. Following the relation [lambda] = h/p, where h is Planck's constant, for the examination of physics at subatomic scales with size [lambda] probes with high momenta p are necessary. These high energies are accessible through particle colliders. Here, particles are accelerated and brought to collision at interaction points at which detectors are installed to record these particle collisions. Until the anticipated start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the Tevatron collider at Fermilab near Chicago is the highest energy collider operating in the world, colliding protons and anti-protons at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 1.96 TeV. Its two interaction points are covered by the multi purpose particle detectors D0 and CDF. During the first data-taking period, known as Run I, the Tevatron operated at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV. This run period lasted from 1992 to 1996. During this period, the long-predicted top quark was discovered. From 1996 and 2001, the accelerator was upgraded to deliver higher instantaneous luminosities at its current center-of-mass energy. At the same time, the experiments were upgraded to take full advantage of the upgraded accelerator complex. The Tevatron is currently the only accelerator in the world with a sufficient energy to produce top quarks. Studying top quark production, decay and properties is an important part of the D0 and CDF physics programs. Because of its large mass, the top quark is a unique probe of the Standard Model, and an interesting environment to search for new physics. In this thesis, a measurement of the production cross-section of top quark pairs decaying to two muons is presented. In addition, a Monte Carlo study of the top quark spin correlation measurement was carried out. This thesis is laid out as follows: chapter two gives a short overview over the Standard Model of particle physics and the theoretical aspects of unpolarized and polarized top quark production and decay, chapter three describes the accelerator complex and the D0 experiment whose data is used in this analysis. The Reconstruction of events recorded with the D0 detector is explained in chapter four and the data and Monte Carlo samples used are presented in chapter five. Finally, the cross-section measurement is described in chapter six and the Monte Carlo study of top quark spin correlations in chapter seven.

This thesis presents the first experimental calibration of the top-quark Monte-Carlo mass. It also provides the top-quark mass-independent and most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurement to date. The most precise measurements of the top-quark mass obtain the top-quark mass parameter (Monte-Carlo mass) used in simulations, which are partially based on heuristic models. Its interpretation in terms of mass parameters used in theoretical calculations, e.g. a running or a pole mass, has been a long-standing open problem with far-reaching implications beyond particle physics, even affecting conclusions on the stability of the vacuum state of our universe. In this thesis, this problem is solved experimentally in three steps using data obtained with the compact muon solenoid (CMS) detector. The most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurements to date are performed. The Monte-Carlo mass is determined and a new method for extracting the top-quark mass from theoretical calculations is presented. Lastly, the top-quark production cross-sections are obtained – for the first time – without residual dependence on the top-quark mass, are interpreted using theoretical calculations to determine the top-quark running- and pole mass with unprecedented precision, and are fully consistently compared with the simultaneously obtained top-quark Monte-Carlo mass.

Top quarks are predominantly produced in pairs via the strong interaction in {bar p}p collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV . The top quark has a weak isospin 1/2, composing a weak isospin doublet with the bottom quark. This characteristic predicts not only top quark pair production via strong interaction but also single production together with a bottom quark via weak interaction. However, finding single top quark production is challenging since it is rarely produced ([sigma]{sub singletop} = 2.9 pb) against background processes with the same final state like W+jets and t{bar t}. A measurement of electroweak single top production probes the W-t-b vertex, which provides a direct determination of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix element.

Before any kind of new physics discovery could be made at the LHC, a precise understanding and measurement of the Standard Model of particle physics' processes was necessary. The book provides an introduction to top quark production in the context of the Standard Model and presents two such precise measurements of the production of top quark pairs in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV that were observed with the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC. The presented measurements focus on events with one charged lepton, missing transverse energy and jets. Using novel and advanced analysis techniques as well as a good understanding of the detector, they constitute the most precise measurements of the quantity at that time.

Two alternative measurements of the t¯t production cross section at √s = 1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions in the lepton+jets channel are presented. The t¯t production cross section is extracted by combining the kinematic event information in a multivariate discriminant. The measurement yields ?p¯p → t¯t + x = 5.13-1.57+1.76(stat)-1.10+0.96(syst) ± 0.33 (lumi) pb in the muon+jets channel, using 229.1 pb-1, and in the combination with the electron+jets channel (226.3 pb-1) ?p¯p → t¯t + x = 6.60-1.28+1.37(stat)-1.11+1.25(syst) ± 0.43 (lumi) pb. The second measurement presented reconstructs explicitly secondary vertices to d lifetime b-tagging. The measurement combines the muon+jets and the electron+jets channel, using 158.4 pb-1 and 168.8 pb-1, respectively: ?p¯p → t¯t + x = 8.24-1.25+1.34(stat)-1.63+1.89(syst) ± 0.54 (lumi) pb.

Two alternative measurements of the t{bar t} production cross section at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions in the lepton+jets channel are presented. The t{bar t} production cross section is extracted by combining the kinematic event information in a multivariate discriminant. The measurement yields {sigma}{sub p{bar p} {yields} t{bar t} + x} = 5.13{sub -1.57}{sup +1.76}(stat){sub -1.10}{sup +0.96}(syst) {+-} 0.33 (lumi) pb in the muon+jets channel, using 229.1 pb{sup -1}, and in the combination with the electron+jets channel 226.3 pb{sup -1} {sigma}{sub p{bar p} {yields} t{bar t} + x} = 6.60{sub -1.28}{sup +1.37}(stat){sub -1.11}{sup +1.25}(syst) {+-} 0.43 (lumi) pb. The second measurement presented reconstructs explicitly secondary vertices to d lifetime b-tagging. The measurement combines the muon+jets and the electron+jets channel, using 158.4 pb{sup -1} and 168.8 pb{sup -1}, respectively: {sigma}{sub p{bar p} {yields} t{bar t} + x} = 8.24{sub -1.25}{sup +1.34}(stat){sub -1.63}{sup +1.89}(syst) {+-} 0.54 (lumi) pb.

Of the six quarks in the standard model the top quark is by far the heaviest: 35 times more massive than its partner the bottom quark and more than 130 times heavier than the average of the other five quarks. Its correspondingly small decay width means it tends to decay before forming a bound state. Of all quarks, therefore, the top is the least affected by quark confinement, behaving almost as a free quark. Its large mass also makes the top quark a key player in the realm of the postulated Higgs boson, whose coupling strengths to particles are proportional to their masses. Precision measurements of particle masses for e.g. the top quark and the W boson can hereby provide indirect constraints on the Higgs boson mass. Since in the standard model top quarks couple almost exclusively to bottom quarks (t 2!Wb), top quark decays provide a window on the standard model through the direct measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix element V{sub tb}. In the same way any lack of top quark decays into W bosons could imply the existence of decay channels beyond the standard model, for example charged Higgs bosons as expected in two-doublet Higgs models: t 2!Hb. Within the standard model top quark decays can be classified by the (lepton or quark) W boson decay products. Depending on the decay of each of the W bosons, t{bar t} pair decays can involve either no leptons at all, or one or two isolated leptons from direct W 2!e{bar {nu}}{sub e} and W 2![mu]{bar {nu}}{sub {mu}} decays. Cascade decays like b 2!Wc 2!e{bar {nu}}{sub e}c can lead to additional non-isolated leptons. The fully hadronic decay channel, in which both Ws decay into a quark-antiquark pair, has the largest branching fraction of all t{bar t} decay channels and is the only kinematically complete (i.e. neutrino-less) channel. It lacks, however, the clear isolated lepton signature and is therefore hard to distinguish from the multi-jet QCD background. It is important to measure the cross section (or branching fraction) in each channel independently to fully verify the standard model. Top quark pair production proceeds through the strong interaction, placing the scene for top quark physics at hadron colliders. This adds an additional challenge: the huge background from multi-jet QCD processes. At the Tevatron, for example, t{bar t} production is completely hidden in light q{bar q} pair production. The light (i.e. not bottom or top) quark pair production cross section is six orders of magnitude larger than that for t{bar t} production. Even including the full signature of hadronic t{bar t} decays, two b-jets and four additional jets, the QCD cross section for processes with similar signature is more than five times larger than for t{bar t} production. The presence of isolated leptons in the (semi)leptonic t{bar t} decay channels provides a clear characteristic to distinguish the t{bar t} signal from QCD background but introduces a multitude of W- and Z-related backgrounds.

This dissertation presents a new measurement of p{bar p} → t{bar t}X production at √s = 1.96 TeV using 974.2 pb−1 of data collected with the D0 detector between 2002 and 2006. We focus on the final state where the W boson from one of the top quarks decays into a [tau] lepton and its associated neutrino, while the other W boson decays into a quark-antiquark pair. We aim to select those events in which the [tau] lepton subsequently decays hadronically, meaning to one or three charged hadrons, zero or more neutral hadrons and a tau neutrino (the charge conjugate processes are implied in all of the above). The observable signature thus consists of a narrow calorimeter shower with associated track(s) characteristic of a hadronic tau decay, four or more jets, of which two are initiated by b quarks accompanying the W's in the top quark decays, and a large net missing momentum in the transverse plane due to the energetic neutrino-antineutrino pair that leave no trace in the detector media. The preliminary result for the measured cross section is: [sigma](t{bar t}) = 6.9{sub -1.2}{sup +1.2}(stat){sub -0.7}{sup +0.8}(syst) ± 0.4 (lumi) pb. This indicates that our finding is consistent with the Standard Model prediction.