The LHC Phenomenology of Vectorlike Confinement

TL;DR

This paper explores the collider signatures of vectorlike confinement at the LHC, proposing models and analyzing signals like di-CHAMPs, R-hadrons, and multi-jet events to identify new confining gauge interactions beyond the Standard Model.

Contribution

It introduces two benchmark models for vectorlike confinement, detailing their collider signatures and demonstrating how to distinguish this framework at the LHC.

Findings

Full spectrum reconstruction is feasible for di-CHAMP/multi-photon signals.

Production of multiple R-hadrons can be significant at the LHC.

Multi-jet signals complement R-hadron signals to identify vectorlike confinement.

Abstract

We investigate in detail the LHC phenomenology of "vectorlike confinement", where the Standard Model is augmented by a new confining gauge interaction and new light fermions that carry vectorlike charges under both the Standard Model and the new gauge group. If the new interaction confines at the TeV scale, this framework gives rise to a wide range of exotic collider signatures such as the production of a vector resonance that decays to a pair of collider-stable charged massive particles (a "di-CHAMP" resonance), to a pair of collider-stable massive colored particles (a "di-R-hadron resonance), to multiple photons, $W$s and $Z$s via two intermediate scalars, and/or to multi-jet final states. To study these signals at the LHC, we set up two benchmark models: one for the di-CHAMP and multi-photon signals, and the other for the di-R-hadron and multijet signals. For the di-CHAMP/multi-photon model, Standard Model backgrounds are negligible, and we show that a full reconstruction of the spectrum is possible, providing powerful evidence for vectorlike confinement. For the di-R-hadron/multijet model, we point out that in addition to the di-R-hadron signal, the rate of the production of four R-hadrons can also be sizable at the LHC. This, together with the multi-jet signals studied in earlier work, makes it possible to single out vectorlike confinement as the underlying dynamics.