General analysis of single top production and W helicity in top decay

We provide a framework for the analysis of the W boson helicity in the decay of the top quark that is based on a general effective tbW coupling. Four independent coupling coefficients can be uniquely determined by the fractions of longitudinal and transverse W boson polarizations as well as the single top production rates for the t-channel and the s-channel processes. The knowledge of these coefficients can be used to discriminate models of electroweak symmetry breaking. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.