Large Hadron Collider Signatures of Exotic Vector-Like Quarks within the 2-Higgs Doublet Model Type-II

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay patterns and detection prospects of exotic vector-like quarks with unusual charges within a 2-Higgs Doublet Model at the LHC, highlighting distinctive signatures for different VLQ representations.

Contribution

It analyzes the decay characteristics of $X$ and $Y$ VLQs in the 2HDM Type-II, focusing on their potential detection and distinguishing features at the LHC.

Findings

Large non-SM decay rates for $X$ and $Y$ VLQs in the 2HDM.

Specific signatures differentiate doublet and triplet VLQ representations.

Potential LHC detection strategies for exotic VLQs.

Abstract

We study the decay of the exotic Vector-Like Quarks (VLQs) $X$ and $Y$, with $5/3$ and $-4/3$ units of electric charge, respectively, within the 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM). Building on our previous studies of Vector-Like Top and Bottom (VLT and VLB) quarks, we now investigate the characteristics of $X$ and $Y$ in the alignment limit of a Type-II Yukawa structure and show that, in the framework of such a 2HDM, one can have large non-Standard Model (SM) decay rates of the $X$ and$ Y$ states. Our analysis focuses on their potential detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), based on their pair production followed by a variety of both SM and non-SM decay patterns. In order to distinguish between doublet and triplet representations of the VLQs $X$ and $Y$, we uncover specific signatures that can provide insights into this particular architecture of Beyond the SM (BSM) physics.