Beyond the Minimal Top Partner Decay

TL;DR

This paper investigates non-standard decay modes of top partners in composite Higgs models, highlighting how additional particles can significantly alter decay signatures without affecting the Higgs potential.

Contribution

It introduces an extension of the minimal composite Higgs model with a singlet pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson, showing altered top partner decay patterns.

Findings

Branching ratios into standard channels can be significantly modified.

The presence of a singlet pseudo-scalar leads to diverse decay final states.

Standard search strategies may need revision to account for new decay modes.

Abstract

Light top partners are the prime sign of naturalness in composite Higgs models. We explore here the possibility of non-standard top partner phenomenology. We show that even in the simplest extension of the minimal composite Higgs model, featuring an extra singlet pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson, the branching ratios of the top partners into standard channels can be significantly altered, with no substantial change in the generated Higgs potential. Together with the variety of possible final states from the decay of the pseudo-scalar singlet, this motivates more extensive analyses in the search for the top partners.