Toponia at the HL-LHC, CEPC, and FCC-ee

Abstract: The discovery of a pseudoscalar toponium state at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) opens a new avenue for the study of a novel class of QCD bound states with comparable formation and decay times. Compared to charmonium and bottomonium, toponium is a more loosely bound state, resembling a hydrogen atom of the strong interactions, although it appears as a broader resonance. We compute the masses and annihilation decay widths of the lowest $S$-wave ($\eta_t$, $\psi_t$) and $P$-wave ($\chi_{t0}$, $\chi_{t1}$) toponium states, and assess their discovery prospects at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) and future lepton colliders such as the Circular Electron-Positron Collider (CEPC) and $e^+e^-$ stage of the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee). Detecting the vector $\psi_t$ state at the HL-LHC is hindered by the Landau-Yang theorem and the collider's gluon-dominated nature, while lepton colliders offer discoverable sensitivity through both constituent and two-body decays. A more precise measurement of $\eta_t$ mass (approximately equal to that of $\psi_t$) at the LHC could help determine the optimal $t\bar{t}$ threshold center-of-mass energy for CEPC and FCC-ee. $P$-wave states remain challenging to observe at both the HL-LHC and future lepton colliders. We also discuss how we can use toponium measurements to probe top quark properties and to conduct indirect searches for new physics, including light scalars coupling to the top quark.