Observability of Top Quark Pair Production in the Semileptonic Muon Channel with the first 10 inverse picobarns of CMS Data

The feasibility for rediscovery of the top quark with the CMS detector, using the first data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider LHC is investigated. Employing the semi-leptonic decay channel of $t\bar{t}$ pairs into jets, missing transverse energy and a high transverse momentum muon, a simple and robust event selection is developed. Realistic detector conditions corresponding to the early data taking phase are included in the simulation. It is shown that already with $10 \rm\ pb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, a $t\bar{t}$ signal can be established.