Ensuring that toponium is glued, not nailed (2411.19180v2)

Abstract: Hints of toponium might be incipient in LHC data, as given the vast numbers of t quarks produced, some survive on the exponential-decay tail long enough to fasten ttbar together. I here discuss a few differences between the standard Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) binding (the glue'') and exotic short-range binding (thenail''). If the binding energy below threshold reaches the 3 GeV range the peak of the eta_t is distinct enough that a cross-section dip should be apparent in the line shape, should there only be one isolated resonance, but is filled by the excited QCD states adding about a pbarn to the cross section of ttbar production. Their effect for smaller binding energies is a tenuous increase in the cross section. A new-physics short-range interaction, on the other hand, yields a larger cross-section for equal binding energy (or hardly a visible bound state for similar cross section). This is due to its larger ttbar relative wavefunction at small distances. Finally, assuming that standard QCD plays out, I comment on what size of constraints on new-physics coefficients one can expect at given precision.