Higher Representations and Multi-Jet Resonances at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of higher SU(3) color representations to produce multi-jet resonances at the LHC, proposing a new explanation for a CMS trijet excess and analyzing discovery prospects.

Contribution

It introduces the phenomenology of exotic higher SU(3) representations that decay into three jets, and shows they can explain the CMS trijet excess while assessing their discovery reach.

Findings

Higher SU(3) representations can produce three-jet resonances.

Such particles can explain the CMS trijet excess at 375 GeV.

The LHC discovery reach for these particles is evaluated.

Abstract

The CMS collaboration has recently conducted a search for trijet resonances in multi-jet events at the LHC. Motivated in part by this analysis, we examine the phenomenology of exotic particles transforming under higher representations of SU(3) color, focusing on those representations which intrinsically prohibit decays to fewer than three jets. We determine the LHC discovery reach for a particle transforming in a representation of this sort and discuss several additional theoretical and phenomenological constraints which apply to such a particle. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such a particle can provide a consistent explanation for a trijet excess (an invariant-mass peak of roughly 375 GeV) observed in the recent CMS study.