Abstract
Searches for new low-mass matter and mediator particles have actively been pursued at fixed target experiments and at e+e− colliders. It is challenging at the CERN LHC, but they have been searched for in Higgs boson decays and in B meson decays by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations, as well as in a low transverse momentum phenomena from forward scattering processes (e.g., FASER). We propose a search for a new scalar particle in association with a heavy vector-like quark. We consider the scenario in which the top quark (t) couples to a light scalar ϕ′ and a heavy vector-like top quark T. We examine single and pair production of T in pp collisions, resulting in a final state with a top quark that decays purely hadronically, a T which decays semileptonically (T → W + b → ℓ ν b), and a ϕ′ that is very boosted and decays to a pair of collimated photons which can be identified as a merged photon system. The proposed search is expected to achieve a discovery reach with signal significance greater than 5σ (3σ) for m(T) as large as 1.8 (2) TeV and m(ϕ′) as small as 1 MeV, assuming an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb−1. This search can expand the reach of T, and demonstrates that the LHC can probe low-mass, MeV-scale particles.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
B. Batell, A. Freitas, A. Ismail and D. Mckeen, Flavor-specific scalar mediators, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 055026 [arXiv:1712.10022] [INSPIRE].
M. Bauer, P. Foldenauer and J. Jaeckel, Hunting All the Hidden Photons, JHEP 07 (2018) 094 [arXiv:1803.05466] [INSPIRE].
M. Abdullah et al., Coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering as a probe of a Z’ through kinetic and mass mixing effects, Phys. Rev. D 98 (2018) 015005 [arXiv:1803.01224] [INSPIRE].
FASER collaboration, FASER: ForwArd Search ExpeRiment at the LHC, arXiv:1901.04468 [UCI-TR-2019-01] [INSPIRE].
G. Cacciapaglia, T. Flacke, M. Park and M. Zhang, Exotic decays of top partners: mind the search gap, Phys. Lett. B 798 (2019) 135015 [arXiv:1908.07524] [INSPIRE].
R. Benbrik et al., Signatures of vector-like top partners decaying into new neutral scalar or pseudoscalar bosons, JHEP 05 (2020) 028 [arXiv:1907.05929] [INSPIRE].
J.A. Aguilar-Saavedra, D.E. López-Fogliani and C. Muñoz, Novel signatures for vector-like quarks, JHEP 06 (2017) 095 [arXiv:1705.02526] [INSPIRE].
R. Dermíšek, E. Lunghi and S. Shin, Hunting for Vectorlike Quarks, JHEP 04 (2019) 019 [Erratum ibid. 10 (2020) 058] [arXiv:1901.03709] [INSPIRE].
M. Chala, Direct bounds on heavy toplike quarks with standard and exotic decays, Phys. Rev. D 96 (2017) 015028 [arXiv:1705.03013] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, S. Ghosh and T. Li, Explaining (g – 2)μ,e, the KOTO anomaly and the MiniBooNE excess in an extended Higgs model with sterile neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 055017 [arXiv:2006.01319] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta et al., Non-standard neutrino interactions in light mediator models at reactor experiments, arXiv:2209.13566 [MI-HET-775] [INSPIRE].
J.C. Pati and A. Salam, Lepton Number as the Fourth Color, Phys. Rev. D 10 (1974) 275 [INSPIRE].
R.N. Mohapatra and J.C. Pati, A Natural Left-Right Symmetry, Phys. Rev. D 11 (1975) 2558 [INSPIRE].
G. Senjanovic and R.N. Mohapatra, Exact Left-Right Symmetry and Spontaneous Violation of Parity, Phys. Rev. D 12 (1975) 1502 [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, S. Ghosh and J. Kumar, A sub-GeV dark matter model, Phys. Rev. D 100 (2019) 075028 [arXiv:1905.02692] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, S. Ghosh and J. Kumar, Opportunities for probing U(1)T 3R with light mediators, Phys. Rev. D 102 (2020) 075041 [arXiv:2007.16191] [INSPIRE].
B. Dutta, S. Ghosh, P. Huang and J. Kumar, Explaining gμ – 2 and \( {R}_{K^{\left(\ast \right)}} \) using the light mediators of U(1)T3R, Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 015011 [arXiv:2105.07655] [INSPIRE].
Z.G. Berezhiani, The Weak Mixing Angles in Gauge Models with Horizontal Symmetry: A New Approach to Quark and Lepton Masses, Phys. Lett. B 129 (1983) 99 [INSPIRE].
D. Chang and R.N. Mohapatra, Small and Calculable Dirac Neutrino Mass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58 (1987) 1600 [INSPIRE].
A. Davidson and K.C. Wali, Universal Seesaw Mechanism?, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59 (1987) 393 [INSPIRE].
S. Rajpoot, See-saw masses for quarks and leptons in an ambidextrous electroweak interaction model, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 2 (1987) 307 [Erratum ibid. 2 (1987) 541] [INSPIRE].
K.S. Babu and R.N. Mohapatra, CP Violation in Seesaw Models of Quark Masses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62 (1989) 1079 [INSPIRE].
K.S. Babu and R.N. Mohapatra, A Solution to the Strong CP Problem Without an Axion, Phys. Rev. D 41 (1990) 1286 [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, The CMS Experiment at the CERN LHC, 2008 JINST 3 S08004 [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, The ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, 2008 JINST 3 S08003 [INSPIRE].
B. Sheff, N. Steinberg and J.D. Wells, Higgs boson decays into narrow diphoton jets and their search strategies at the Large Hadron Collider, Phys. Rev. D 104 (2021) 036009 [arXiv:2008.10568] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Reconstruction of decays to merged photons using end-to-end deep learning with domain continuation in the CMS detector, arXiv:2204.12313 [CMS-EGM-20-001] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for exotic Higgs boson decays \( H\to \mathcal{AA}\to 4\gamma \) with events containing two merged diphotons in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV, arXiv:2209.06197 [CMS-HIG-21-016] [INSPIRE].
S. Knapen, S. Kumar and D. Redigolo, Searching for axionlike particles with data scouting at ATLAS and CMS, Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 115012 [arXiv:2112.07720] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Identification of heavy, energetic, hadronically decaying particles using machine-learning techniques, 2020 JINST 15 P06005 [arXiv:2004.08262] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Performance of top-quark and W -boson tagging with ATLAS in Run 2 of the LHC, Eur. Phys. J. C 79 (2019) 375 [arXiv:1808.07858] [INSPIRE].
J. Alwall et al., The automated computation of tree-level and next-to-leading order differential cross sections, and their matching to parton shower simulations, JHEP 07 (2014) 079 [arXiv:1405.0301] [INSPIRE].
T. Sjöstrand et al., An introduction to PYTHIA 8.2, Comput. Phys. Commun. 191 (2015) 159 [arXiv:1410.3012] [INSPIRE].
DELPHES 3 collaboration, DELPHES 3, A modular framework for fast simulation of a generic collider experiment, JHEP 02 (2014) 057 [arXiv:1307.6346] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Study of the Discovery Reach in Searches for Supersymmetry at CMS with 3000/fb, CMS-PAS-FTR-13-014, Geneva, Switzerland (2013) [INSPIRE].
L. Moneta et al., The RooStats Project, PoS ACAT2010 (2010) 057 [arXiv:1009.1003] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for Resonant Production of High-Mass Photon Pairs in Proton-Proton Collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 8 and 13 TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 (2016) 051802 [arXiv:1606.04093] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for high-mass dilepton resonances in pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 052005 [arXiv:1405.4123] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for pair production of vector-like quarks in leptonic final states in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV, arXiv:2209.07327 [CMS-B2G-20-011] [INSPIRE].
J. Butterworth et al., PDF4LHC recommendations for LHC Run II, J. Phys. G 43 (2016) 023001 [arXiv:1510.03865] [INSPIRE].
O. Matsedonskyi, G. Panico and A. Wulzer, On the Interpretation of Top Partners Searches, JHEP 12 (2014) 097 [arXiv:1409.0100] [INSPIRE].
D. Liu, L.-T. Wang and K.-P. Xie, Prospects of searching for composite resonances at the LHC and beyond, JHEP 01 (2019) 157 [arXiv:1810.08954] [INSPIRE].
J.H. Kim et al., Searching for Dark Photons with Maverick Top Partners, Phys. Rev. D 101 (2020) 035041 [arXiv:1904.05893] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV, Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 092007 [arXiv:2201.11585] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for associated production of a Z boson with an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, Phys. Lett. B 829 (2022) 137066 [arXiv:2111.08372] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Measurements of Higgs boson production cross sections and couplings in the diphoton decay channel at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 13 TeV, JHEP 07 (2021) 027 [arXiv:2103.06956] [INSPIRE].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
ArXiv ePrint: 2202.08234
Rights and permissions
Open Access . This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Dutta, B., Ghosh, S., Gurrola, A. et al. Probing an MeV-scale scalar boson in association with a TeV-Scale top-quark partner at the LHC. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 164 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2023)164
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2023)164