Multiple Z' -> t-tbar signals in a 4D Composite Higgs Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to discover heavy Z' bosons from a 4D Composite Higgs Model at the LHC by analyzing top-antitop production, focusing on resonance separation and detection prospects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Z' signals in top pair production within the 4DCHM, including resonance degeneracy conditions and the impact of resonance widths on observability.

Findings

Two Z' states can be detected at 14 TeV LHC with standard luminosity.

Conditions for separating nearly degenerate resonances are identified.

A discovery potential map and experimental benchmarks are provided.

Abstract

We study the production of top-antitop pairs at the Large Hadron Collider as a testbed for discovering heavy Z' bosons belonging to a composite Higgs model, as, in this scenario, such new gauge interaction states are sizeably coupled to the third generation quarks of the Standard Model. We study their possible appearance in cross section as well as (charge and spin) asymmetry distributions. Our calculations are performed in the minimal four-dimensional formulation of such a scenario, namely the 4-Dimensional Composite Higgs Model (4DCHM), which embeds five new $Z'$s. We pay particular attention to the case of nearly degenerate resonances, highlighting the conditions under which these are separable in the aforementioned observables. We also discuss the impact of the intrinsic width of the new resonances onto the event rates and various distributions. We confirm that the 14 TeV stage of the LHC will enable one to detect two such states, assuming standard detector performance and machine luminosity. A mapping of the discovery potential of the LHC of these new gauge bosons is given. Finally, from the latter, several benchmarks are extracted which are amenable to experimental investigation.