Top Quark Mass Extractions from Energy Correlators: A Feasibility Study

In a recent article, we proposed an energy correlator-based method to achieve a precision top quark mass extraction from jet substructure, using the W-boson mass as a standard candle. In this paper, we perform an extensive event generator simulation study of this proposal, testing its experimental viability and its sensitivity to different subprocesses in the top quark production and decay. On the experimental side, we show that uncertainties in the jet energy scale, constituent energy scale, and tracking efficiency have a minimal effect. On the theoretical side, we find that our observable isolates the perturbative decay of the top quark. At the same time, nonperturbative physics, such as the modelling of color reconnection and the underlying event, has a negligible impact on the distribution. We conclude that our proposed measurement is resilient to the experimental and theoretical aspects of the hadron collider environment, with variations in model parameters consistently leading to ≲ 100 MeV shifts in the measured top mass. Our results motivate precision theoretical calculations of the energy correlator on top decays, both analytic and using parton shower generators, and further exploration of the experimental measurement.