Search for single production of a heavy vector-like T quark decaying to a Higgs boson and a top quark with a lepton and jets in the final state

TL;DR

This study searches for single production of heavy vector-like T quarks decaying into a Higgs boson and a top quark using 13 TeV proton-proton collision data, setting new exclusion limits on production cross sections.

Contribution

First analysis to set exclusion limits on singly produced vector-like T quarks at 13 TeV using CMS data.

Findings

No significant excess over standard model backgrounds.

Exclusion limits on cross section times branching fraction for T quark masses 700-1800 GeV.

Limits exclude cross sections greater than 0.8 and 0.7 pb at 1000 GeV for different couplings.

Abstract

A search for single production of vector-like top quark partners (T) decaying into a Higgs boson and a top quark is performed using data from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse femtobarns. The top quark decay includes an electron or a muon while the Higgs boson decays into a pair of b quarks. No significant excess over standard model backgrounds is observed. Exclusion limits on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction are derived in the T quark mass range 700 to 1800 GeV. For a mass of 1000 GeV, values of the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction greater than 0.8 and 0.7 pb are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming left- and right-handed coupling of the T quark to standard model particles, respectively. This is the first analysis setting exclusion limits on the cross section of singly produced vector-like T quarks at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV.