Collider Phenomenology of Gauge-Higgs Unification Scenarios in Warped Extra Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the collider phenomenology of gauge-Higgs unification in warped extra dimensions, focusing on the couplings and detection prospects of excited states of top quarks and gluons within a specific RS model.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical study of couplings and collider signatures of excited states in a gauge-Higgs unification scenario with warped extra dimensions.

Findings

Light excited top quarks couple strongly to KK gauge bosons

Enhanced pair production of excited top quarks via gluon excitations

Potential detection of excited top states despite high masses

Abstract

We compute the couplings of the zero modes and first excited states of gluons, $W$'s, $Z$ gauge bosons, as well as the Higgs, to the zero modes and first excited states of the third generation quarks, in an RS Gauge-Higgs unification scenario based on a bulk $SO(5)\times U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry, with gauge and fermion fields propagating in the bulk. Using the parameter space consistent with electroweak precision tests and radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, we study numerically the dependence of these couplings on the parameters of our model. Furthermore, after emphasizing the presence of light excited states of the top quark, which couple strongly to the Kaluza Klein gauge bosons, the associated collider phenomenology is analyzed. In particular, we concentrate on the possible detection of the first excited state of the top, $t^1$, which tends to have a higher mass than the ones accessible via regular QCD production processes. We stress that the detection of these particles is still possible due to an increase in the pair production of $t^1$ induced by the first excited state of the gluon, $G^1$.