Single production of vector-like quarks: the effects of large width, interference and NLO corrections

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive simulation framework for single vector-like quark production at hadron colliders, incorporating finite width, interference effects, and NLO QCD corrections, with detailed analysis of phenomenological implications.

Contribution

It introduces a complete setup for simulating single vector-like quark production including finite width, interference, and NLO corrections, applicable to various charges and extended interactions.

Findings

Quantitative results for different mass and width scenarios.

Interference effects significantly impact production predictions.

Distinct invariant mass features in the $T o th$ decay channel.

Abstract

We provide a comprehensive discussion, together with a complete setup for simulations, relevant for the production of a single vector-like quark at hadron colliders. Our predictions include finite width effects, signal-background interference effects and next-to-leading order QCD corrections. We explicitly apply the framework to study the single production of a vector-like quark $T$ with charge 2/3, but the same procedure can be used to analyse the single production of vector-like quarks with charge $-4/3$, $-1/3$, $2/3$ and $5/3$, when the vector-like quark interacts with the Standard Model quarks and electroweak bosons. Moreover, this procedure can be straightforwardly extended to include additional interactions with exotic particles. We provide quantitative results for representative benchmark scenarios characterised by the $T$ mass and width, and we determine the role of the interference terms for a range of masses and widths of phenomenological significance. We additionally describe in detail, both analytically and numerically, a striking feature in the invariant mass distribution appearing only in the $T \to th$ channel.