T-odd Quarks Research Articles

Sivers and Boer-Mulders TMDs of the proton in a light-front quark-diquark model

We obtain the leading twist T-odd quark transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) of the proton, namely, the Sivers function ${f}_{1T}^{\ensuremath{\perp}q}(x,{p}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{2})$ and the Boer-Mulders function ${h}_{1}^{\ensuremath{\perp}q}(x,{p}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}^{2})$, in a light-front quark-diquark model constructed with the wave functions predicted by the soft-wall AdS/QCD. The gluon rescattering is crucial to predict nonzero T-odd TMDs. We study the utility of a nonperturbative $SU(3)$ gluon rescattering kernel going beyond the usual approximation of perturbative $U(1)$ gluons. The spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) associated with these T-odd TMDs are found to be consistent with HERMES and COMPASS data. We further predict the Sivers asymmetries of pion production in the SIDIS process in the kinematical region of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) and the EIC in China. We also evaluate the generalized Sivers and Boer-Mulders shifts and compare them with the available lattice QCD simulations.

Same-sign dilepton excesses and vector-like quarks

Multiple analyses from ATLAS and CMS collaborations, including searches for ttH production, supersymmetric particles and vector-like quarks, observed excesses in the same-sign dilepton channel containing b-jets and missing transverse energy in the LHC Run 1 data. In the context of little Higgs theories with T parity, we explain these excesses using vector-like T-odd quarks decaying into a top quark, a W boson and the lightest T-odd particle (LTP). For heavy vector-like quarks, decay topologies containing the LTP have not been searched for at the LHC. The bounds on the masses of the T-odd quarks can be estimated in a simplified model approach by adapting the search limits for top/bottom squarks in supersymmetry. Assuming a realistic decay branching fraction, a benchmark with a 750 GeV T-odd b-prime quark is proposed. We also comment on the possibility to fit excesses in different analyses in a common framework.

Implications of the Little Higgs Dark Matter and T-odd fermions

We study the phenomenology of dark matter in the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity after the discovery of Higgs boson. We analyze the relic abundance of dark matter, focusing on the effects of coannihilaitons with T-odd fermions. After determining the parameter space that predicts the correct relic abundance measured by WMAP and Planck collaborations, we evaluate the elastic scattering cross section between dark matter and nucleon. In comparison with experimental results, we find that the lower mass of dark matter is constrained mildly by LUX 2013 while the future XENON experiment has potential to explore most of the parameter space for both T-odd lepton and T-odd quark coannihilation scenarios. We also study the collider signatures of T-odd fermion pair production at the LHC. Even though the production cross sections are large, it turns out very challenging to search for these T-odd fermions directly at the collider because the visible charged leptons or jets are very soft. Furthermore, we show that, with an extra hard jet radiated out from the initial state, the T-odd quark pair production can contribute significantly to mono-jet plus missing energy search at the LHC.

Dijet signals of the little Higgs model with T-parity

The Littest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT), apart from offering a viable solution to the naturalness problem of the Standard Model, also predicts a set of new fermions as well as a candidate for dark matter. We explore the possibility of discovering the heavy T-odd quark Q H at the LHC in a final state comprising two hard jets with a large missing transverse momentum. Also discussed is the role of heavy flavor tagging.

WH/ZHproduction associated with aT-odd (anti)quark at the LHC in next-to-leading order QCD

In the framework of the littlest Higgs model with T parity, we study the ${W}_{H}/{Z}_{H}$ production in association with a T-odd (anti)quark of the first two generations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider up to the QCD next-to-leading order. The kinematic distributions of final decay products and the theoretical dependence of the cross section on the factorization/renormalization scale are discussed. We apply three schemes in considering the QCD NLO contributions and find that the QCD NLO corrections by adopting the (II) and (III) subtraction schemes can keep the convergence of the perturbative QCD description and reduce the scale uncertainty of the leading order cross section. By using these two subtraction schemes, the QCD NLO corrections to the ${W}_{H}({Z}_{H}){q}_{\ensuremath{-}}$ production process enhance the leading order cross section with a K-factor in the range of $1.00\ensuremath{\sim}1.43$.

T-odd quarks at the large hadron collider: 2010–2012

We study the potential of the current Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 7 TeV run to search for heavy, colored vector-like fermions, which are assumed to carry a conserved Z2 quantum number forcing them to be pair-produced. Each fermion is assumed to decay directly into a Standard Model quark and an invisible stable particle. T-odd quarks and the lightest T-odd particle (LTP) of the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity provide an example of this setup. We estimate the bounds based on the published CMS search for events with jets and missing transverse energy in the 35 pb−1 data set collected in the 2010 run. We find that T-odd quark masses below about 450 GeV are ruled out for the LTP mass about 100 GeV. This bound is somewhat stronger than the published Tevatron constraint. We also estimate the reach with higher integrated luminosities expected in the 2011–2012 run. If no deviation from the SM is observed, we expect that a bound on the T-odd quark mass of about 650 GeV, for the LTP mass of 300 GeV and below, can be achieved with 1 fb−1 of data. We comment on the possibility of using initial-state radiation jets to constrain the region with nearly-degenerate T-odd quark and LTP.

Dilepton and four-lepton signals at the LHC in the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity violation

In the presence of the T-parity violating Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) anomaly term, the otherwise stable heavy photon A_H in the Littlest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT) decays to either Standard Model (SM) gauge boson pairs, or to SM fermions via loop diagrams. We make a detailed study of the collider signatures where the A_H can be reconstructed from invariant mass peaks in the opposite sign same flavor dilepton or the four-lepton channels. This enables us to obtain information about the fundamental symmetry breaking scale f in the LHT and thereby the low-lying mass spectrum of the theory. In addition, indication of the presence of the WZW term gives us hints of the possible UV completion of the LHT via strong dynamics. The crucial observation is that the sum of all production processes of heavy T-odd quark pairs has a sizeable cross-section at the LHC and these T-odd particles eventually all cascade decay down to the heavy photon A_H. We show that for certain regions of the parameter space with either a small f of around 500 GeV or relatively light T-odd quarks with a mass of around 400 GeV, one can reconstruct the A_H even at the early LHC run with \sqrt{s}=10 TeV and a modest integrated luminosity of 200 pb^{-1}. At \sqrt{s} = 14 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 30 fb^{-1}, it is possible to cover a large part of the typical parameter space of the LHT, with the scale f up to 1.5 TeV and with T-odd quark masses almost up to 1 TeV. In this region of the parameter space, the mass of the reconstructed A_H ranges from 66 GeV to 230 GeV.

Dileptonic signatures of T-odd quarks at the LHC

Little Higgs models are often endowed with a T-parity in order to satisfy electroweak precision tests and give at the same time a stable particle which is a candidate for cold dark matter. This type of models predicts a set of new T-odd fermions in addition to the heavy gauge bosons of the Little Higgs models, which may show interesting signatures at colliders. In this paper, we study the signatures of strong and electroweak pair production of the first two generations of T-odd quarks at the LHC. We focus on the dileptonic signatures (a) pp → ℓ ± ℓ ∓ jj (opposite-sign dileptons) and (b) pp → ℓ ± ℓ ± jj (same-sign dileptons).

Formula omitted]-anomaly induced LHC signals

T-parity in the little Higgs model could be violated by anomalies that allow the lightest T-odd AH to decay into ZZ and W+W−. We analyze these anomaly induced decays and the two-particle and the three-particle decay modes of other heavy quarks and bosons in this model which yield unique Large Hadron Collider (LHC) signals with fully reconstructible events. T-odd quarks in the little Higgs model are nearly degenerate in mass and they decay by almost identical processes; however, members of the heavy Higgs triplet follow distinct decay modes. The branching fractions of three-body decays increase with the global symmetry-breaking energy scale f and are found to be at the level of a few percent in heavy quark decays while they can reach up to 10% for heavy bosons.

Phenomenology of top partners at the ILC

The assumption of a new symmetry provides a nice explanation of the existence of dark matter and an elegant way to avoid the electroweak constraints. This symmetry often requires the pair production of new particles at colliders and it guarantees that cascade decays down to the lightest particle give rise to missing energy plus jets and leptons. For a long time, supersymmetry with the conserved R-parity was the only candidate for such signals. However, any new physics with this type of new symmetry may show up with similar signals and the discrimination between different models at the LHC is quite challenging. In this paper, we address the problem of discrimination between different models, more concretely, in the little Higgs theory with T-parity (LHT) and the supersymmetric theory with R-parity. We concentrate on the pair production of heavy top partners, e.g., T-odd quarks in LHT and the scalar top quarks in the MSSM at linear colliders (LC).