Discovery prospects of a vectorlike top partner decaying to a singlet boson

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential to discover a vectorlike top partner decaying into a singlet scalar and a top quark at the LHC, using machine learning to distinguish signals from background.

Contribution

It demonstrates the discovery prospects of a vectorlike top partner decaying to a singlet boson and a top quark, employing multivariate analysis for the first time in this context.

Findings

The channel can serve as a promising discovery mode for the top partner.

Machine learning techniques effectively separate signal from background.

Results are broadly applicable across various new physics models.

Abstract

The possibility of a vectorlike top partner decaying to a new colourless weak-singlet scalar or pseudoscalar has attracted some attention in the literature. We investigate the production of a weak-singlet charge-$2/3$ $T$ quark that can decay to a spinless boson ($\Phi$) and a top quark at the LHC. Earlier, in 2203.13753, we have shown that in a large part of the parameter space, the $T\to t\Phi$ and the loop-induced $\Phi \to gg$ decays become the dominant decay modes for these particles. Here, we investigate the discovery prospects of the $T$ quark in this region through the above decays. In particular, we focus on the $pp\to TT\to (t\Phi)(t\Phi)\to (t(gg))\,(t(gg))$ channel. Separating this signal from the huge Standard Model background is a challenging task, forcing us to employ a multivariate machine-learning technique. We find that the above channel can be a discovery channel of the top partner in the large part of the parameter space where the above decay chain dominates. Our analysis is largely model-independent, and hence our results would be useful in a broad class of new physics models.