VLQBounds is a modular Python tool that compares VLQ parameter points to LHC pair and single production limits via grid interpolation and returns 95% CL exclusion verdicts.
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Model Independent Framework for Searches of Top Partners
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abstract
We propose a model-independent and general framework to study the LHC phenomenology of top partners, i.e. Vector-Like quarks including particles with different electro-magnetic charge. We consider Vector-Like quarks embedded in general representations of the weak SU(2)L, coupling to all Standard Model quarks via Yukawa mixing focusing on the case of a single multiplet. We show that, with very minimal and quite general assumptions, top partners may be studied in terms of few parameters in an effective Lagrangian description with a clear and simple connection with experimental observables. We also demonstrate that the parametrisation can be applied as well to cases with many Vector-like multiplets, thus covering most realistic models of New Physics. We perform a numerical study to understand the conclusions which can be drawn within such a description and the expected potential for discovery or exclusion at the LHC. Our main results are a clear connection between branching ratios and single production channels, and the identification of novel interesting channels to be studied at the LHC.
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Colour-sextet top partners in composite Higgs models are excluded up to 2-2.5 TeV by current LHC data via top-rich decays, with HL-LHC reach near 3 TeV.
In minimal benchmarks with a vector-like down quark D and singlet scalar, the new-physics contribution to B to X_s gamma is only 0.4 percent of the Standard Model value at TeV scales, while B_s mixing imposes stronger limits on the complex-scalar case.
A combined kitchen sink observable set of Energy Flow Polynomials and subjettiness variables outperforms standard baselines in sensitivity to a wide range of resonant signals, with new public benchmarks released and an attribute bagging variant reducing training cost.
XGBoost multivariate analysis extends the 5-sigma discovery reach for singly produced vector-like bottom quarks decaying via heavy neutral Higgs bosons to 1.6 TeV at the HL-LHC with 3 ab^{-1}.
With XGBoost at 14 TeV and 3000 fb⁻¹, 2σ exclusion of a tau-mixing singlet vectorlike lepton can reach ~500 GeV (3-lepton) and ~405 GeV (4-lepton) if systematics are negligible.
Hidden BSM decays of vector-like bottom quarks in 2HDM-II relax LHC mass limits from ~1.5 TeV to 1.34 TeV for singlets and 0.98 TeV for doublets.
No excess observed in search for vector-like T-quarks in Ht channel; 95% CL mass limits set at 1.40 TeV (SU(2) singlet), 1.56 TeV (doublet), and 1.66 TeV (100% BR to Ht).
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Machine learning study on single production of a singlet vectorlike lepton at the Large Hadron Collider
With XGBoost at 14 TeV and 3000 fb⁻¹, 2σ exclusion of a tau-mixing singlet vectorlike lepton can reach ~500 GeV (3-lepton) and ~405 GeV (4-lepton) if systematics are negligible.