Vectorlike top quark production via a chromomagnetic moment at the LHC

Theories which provide a dynamical explanation for the large top quark mass often include TeV-scale vectorlike top quark and bottom quark partner states which can be potentially discovered at the LHC. These states are currently probed through model-independent searches for pair production via gluon fusion, as well as through model-dependent complementary electroweak single production. In this paper we study the potential to extend those searches for the partners of the third-generation Standard Model quarks on the basis of their expected chromomagnetic interactions. We discuss how current searches for “excited” bottom quarks produced via b -gluon fusion through chromomagnetic interactions are relevant, and provide significant constraints. We then explore the region of the parameter space in which the bottom quark partner is heavier than the top quark partner, in which case the top partner can be primarily produced via the decay of the bottom partner. Next, we probe the potential of the production of a single top quark partner in association with an ordinary top quark by gluon fusion. Kinematically these two new processes are similar, and they yield the production of a heavy top partner and a lighter Standard Model state, a pattern which allows for the rejection of the associated dominant Standard Model backgrounds. We examine the sensitivity of these modes in the case where the top partner subsequently decays to a Higgs boson and an ordinary top quark, and we demonstrate that these new channels have the potential of extending and complementing the conventional strategies at the LHC run III and at the high-luminosity phase of the LHC. In this last case, we find that partner masses that range up to about 3 TeV can be reached. This substantially expands the expected mass reach for these new states, including regions of parameter space that are inaccessible by traditional searches.