On Gluon Radiation in $t \bar t$ Production and Decay

Understanding the pattern of gluon radiation in $t \bar t$ production processes is important for making an accurate determination of the top mass from the measurement of its decay products. In a recent paper we showed that the exact matrix element and parton shower (HERWIG) calculations gave very different results for the distribution of gluon jets in $t \bar t$ production at the Tevatron $p \bar p$ collider. By repeating the calculation for the simpler $e^+e^- \to b \bar b W^+W^-g$ process, we reveal even more dramatic differences between the two approaches. We conclude that there are significant differences in gluon radiation between HERWIG and the matrix element calculation in regions of phase space where one would expect agreement.