Color Octet Scalar Bound States at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical possibility and collider phenomenology of color octet scalar bound states, called octetonia, at the LHC, including their production and decay channels.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of octetonia formed from color octet scalars with MFV-compatible couplings and analyzes their potential signatures at the LHC.

Findings

Predicted production rates of octetonia via gluon fusion.

Decay channels of octetonia into gauge bosons, Higgs, and top pairs.

Potential observability of octetonia at the LHC.

Abstract

One possible extension of the Standard Model scalar sector includes SU(2)_L doublet scalars that are color octets rather than singlets. We focus on models in which the couplings to fermions are consistent with the principle of minimal flavor violation (MFV), in which case these color octet scalars couple most strongly to the third generation of quarks. When the Yukawa coupling of color octet scalars to Standard Model fermions is less than unity, these states can live long enough to bind into color-singlet spin-0 hadrons, which we call octetonia. In this paper, we consider the phenomenology of octetonia at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Predictions for their production via gluon-gluon fusion and their two-body decays into Standard Model gauge bosons, Higgs bosons, and \bar{t}t are presented.