On the Interpretation of Top Partners Searches

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model-independent approach to interpret Top Partner searches at the LHC using a Simplified Model, facilitating analysis across different explicit models and experimental results.

Contribution

It introduces a Simplified Model framework for interpreting Top Partner searches, including single production effects, applicable to current and future collider data.

Findings

Recasting of 8 TeV Run-1 results for specific Top Partner searches.

Estimated reach for 13 TeV Run-2 data including single production.

Projected sensitivity for a 100 TeV collider.

Abstract

Relatively light Top Partners are unmistakable signatures of reasonably Natural Composite Higgs models and as such they are worth searching for at the LHC. Their phenomenology is characterized by a certain amount of model-dependence, which makes the interpretation of Top Partner experimental searches not completely straightforward especially if one is willing to take also single production into account. We describe a model-independent strategy by which the interpretation is provided on the parameter space of a Simplified Model that captures the relevant features of all the explicit constructions. The Simplified Model limits are easy to interpret within explicit models, in a way that requires no recasting and no knowledge of the experimental details of the analyses. We illustrate the method by concrete examples, among which the searches for a charge 5/3 Partner in same-sign dileptons and the searches for a charge 2/3 singlet. In each case we perform a theory recasting of the available 8 TeV Run-1 results and an estimate of the 13 TeV Run-2 reach, also including the effect of single production for which dedicated experimental analyses are not yet available. A rough assessment of the reach of a hypothetical 100 TeV collider is also provided.