Prospects and Constraints for Vector-like MFV Matter at LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for discovering vector-like quarks obeying Minimal Flavour Violation at the LHC, analyzing models, constraints, and discovery prospects within current phenomenological bounds.

Contribution

It identifies two viable MFV models with vector-like quarks and evaluates their discovery potential at the LHC considering existing experimental constraints.

Findings

Two naturally viable MFV models with vector-like quarks identified.

Significant parameter space allows early LHC discovery.

Models are consistent with current low-energy phenomenology.

Abstract

We examine the prospects for LHC discovery of SU(2)_L singlet vector-like quarks that obey Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV) and are consistent with lower energy phenomenology. We study models where the vector-like quarks have the same quantum numbers as u_R or d_R, allowing mixing, which generally leads to significant low energy constraints. We find that there are two naturally phenomenologically viable MFV models of this type when the Weyl spinor components of the vector-like quarks are flavour triplets. We examine direct production bounds, flavour and electroweak precision data constraints for these models and determine the cross section for allowed values of the model parameters at LHC. For the models we identify as naturally phenomenologically viable, large amounts of parameter space afford a significant early discovery reach at LHC while being consistent with lower energy phenomenology.