Shedding Light on Top Partner at the LHC

TL;DR

This study explores the LHC's ability to detect top partners decaying into a top quark plus a gluon or photon, highlighting the potential for discovery despite suppressed branching ratios.

Contribution

It provides a model-independent analysis of top partner decays into t+g or t+γ using effective operators and simulates detection prospects with boosted top tagging and photon identification.

Findings

LHC sensitivity extends to top partner masses of 1.4-1.8 TeV.

Photon channels offer cleaner signals due to lower backgrounds.

Sensitivity is higher for t+γ decays despite smaller branching ratios.

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of the 14 TeV LHC to pair-produced top partners ($T$) decaying into the Standard Model top quark ($t$) plus either a gluon ($g$) or a photon ($\gamma$). The decays $T\rightarrow tg$ and $T\rightarrow t\gamma$ can be dominant when the mixing between the top partner and top quark are negligible. In this case, the conventional decays $T\rightarrow bW$, $T\rightarrow tZ$, and $T\rightarrow th$ are highly suppressed and can be neglected. We take a model-independent approach using effective operators for the $T$-$t$-$g$ and $T$-$t$-$\gamma$ interactions, considering both spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ and spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ top partners. We perform a semi-realistic simulation with boosted top quark tagging and an appropriate implementation of a jet-faking-photon rate. Despite a simple dimensional analysis indicating that the branching ratios ${\rm BR}(T\rightarrow t\gamma)\ll {\rm BR}(T\rightarrow tg)$ due to the electric-magnetic coupling being much smaller than the strong force coupling, our study shows that the LHC sensitivity to $T\bar{T}\rightarrow t\overline{t}\gamma g$ is more significant than the sensitivity to $T\overline{T}\rightarrow t\overline{t}gg$. This is due to much smaller backgrounds attributed to the isolated high-$p_T$ photon. We find that with these decay channels and 3 ab$^{-1}$ of data, the LHC is sensitive to top partner masses $m_T\lesssim 1.4-1.8$~TeV for spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ and spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ top partners, respectively.