Four boosted tops from a Regge gluon

Abstract

The hierarchy problem can by addressed by extending the four-dimensional space-time to include an extra compact spatial dimension with non-trivial “warped” metric, as first suggested by Randall and Sundrum. If the Randall-Sundrum framework is realized in string theory, and if the Standard Model particles propagate in the extra dimension, Regge excitations of the Standard Model states should appear around the TeV scale. In a previous publication, we proposed a field-theoretic framework to model the tensor (spin-2) Regge partner of the gluon. Here, we use this framework to study the collider phenomenology of this particle. We find that Regge gluon decays involving Kaluza-Klein (KK) partners of Standard Model fields are very important. In particular, the decay to two KK gluons (with one possibly off-shell) dominates in most of the parameter space. This decay produces a very distinctive experimental signature: four highly boosted top quarks. We present a preliminary study of the detection prospects for this signal at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We find that Regge gluon masses up to about 2 TeV can be probed with 10 fb−1 of data at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy. With design luminosity at 14 TeV, the LHC should be sensitive to Regge gluon masses up to at least 3.5 TeV.