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CMS-PAS-B2G-24-006
Search for pair production of heavy resonances in photon plus large-radius jets final states in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV
Abstract: We present a search for the pair production of heavy spin-3/2 or spin-1/2 resonances ($ \mathrm{t}^{*} $) in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV. We use data collected by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC from 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $. The analysis targets signal scenarios where one $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ decays into a top quark (t) and a gluon (g), and the other into a t and a photon ($ \gamma $), via the process $ \mathrm{pp}\rightarrow\mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}}\rightarrow\mathrm{tg\bar{t}}\gamma $. All-hadronic final states from the t pair decay chain are selected using jet substructure techniques. The mass of the $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ candidate is reconstructed using the photon and a top-candidate jet, which is then used to probe the signal. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. Observed (expected) upper limits on the signal cross section at 95% confidence level are set, excluding masses of spin-1/2 $\mathrm{t}^{*} $ particles below 940 (1000) GeV and spin-3/2 $\mathrm{t}^{*} $ particles below 1330 (1410) GeV. This analysis marks the first search for heavy resonances in the $ \mathrm{tg\bar{t}}\gamma $ final state. Exploiting the high-energy photon, which reduces background despite the small $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\rightarrow\mathrm{t}\gamma $ branching ratio, this search achieves sensitivity comparable to $ \mathrm{pp}\rightarrow\mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}}\rightarrow\mathrm{tg\bar{t}g} $ searches.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
Representative Feynman diagram for pair production of $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ in the $ \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\gamma $ final state.

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Figure 2:
Shape comparison of the $ m_{\gamma\text{j}_{1}} $ distribution for $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} $ signal events generated at different $ m_{\mathrm{t}^{*}} $, with spin-1/2 (solid) and spin-3/2 (dashed).

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Figure 3:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 3-a:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 3-b:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 3-c:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 3-d:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 3-e:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

png pdf
Figure 3-f:
The photon (left) and j$ _1 $ (right) $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ distributions in SR (top), VR1 (middle) and VR2 (bottom) is presented, with statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

png pdf
Figure 4:
The background-only postfit $ m_{\gamma\text{j}_{1}} $ distributions for the SR (left) and VR1 (right) are shown. Statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

png pdf
Figure 4-a:
The background-only postfit $ m_{\gamma\text{j}_{1}} $ distributions for the SR (left) and VR1 (right) are shown. Statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

png pdf
Figure 4-b:
The background-only postfit $ m_{\gamma\text{j}_{1}} $ distributions for the SR (left) and VR1 (right) are shown. Statistical and systematic uncertainties in the expected background yields depicted by the hatched band. Additionally, the simulated signal distributions for spin-1/2 and -3/2 $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with mass of 900 GeV are overlaid for comparison, with both samples normalized to a cross section of 10 fb. The last bin includes the overflow.

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Figure 5:
The expected (red solid line) and the observed (red dashed line) 95% CL upper limits on the product of the cross section for $ \mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma $ production times the $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma)\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}) $ as a function of mass for spin-1/2 (left) and spin-3/2 (right) $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $. The blue (inner) and yellow (outer) bands indicate the 68 and 95% coverage of the expected upper limits. The green solid lines represent the values expected from the theory.

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Figure 5-a:
The expected (red solid line) and the observed (red dashed line) 95% CL upper limits on the product of the cross section for $ \mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma $ production times the $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma)\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}) $ as a function of mass for spin-1/2 (left) and spin-3/2 (right) $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $. The blue (inner) and yellow (outer) bands indicate the 68 and 95% coverage of the expected upper limits. The green solid lines represent the values expected from the theory.

png pdf
Figure 5-b:
The expected (red solid line) and the observed (red dashed line) 95% CL upper limits on the product of the cross section for $ \mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma $ production times the $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\gamma)\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}) $ as a function of mass for spin-1/2 (left) and spin-3/2 (right) $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $. The blue (inner) and yellow (outer) bands indicate the 68 and 95% coverage of the expected upper limits. The green solid lines represent the values expected from the theory.
Tables

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Table 1:
Observed and expected 95% CL lower mass limits for $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ searches.
Summary
A search has been presented for spin-1/2 and -3/2 heavy particles in final state with a photon and large-radius jets. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $ collected between 2016 and 2018 with the CMS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV. The pair production of excited top quarks was analyzed, considering the decay signature of $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\gamma $. Lorentz-boosted top quark identification techniques are used to select the events containing large-radius jets originated from top quarks and to suppress standard model backgrounds. No significant deviation from the standard model background prediction is observed. Upper limits are placed on the product of the $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} $ production cross section times the $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\gamma) $ as a function of the $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ mass. A spin-1/2 (-3/2) $ \mathrm{t}^{*} $ with a mass below 940 (1330 ) GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the first limits obtained from the $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\gamma $ channel which are both comparable to and complementary with the limits obtained from the $ \mathrm{t}^{*}\bar{\mathrm{t}^{*}} \to \mathrm{t}\mathrm{g}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{g} $ channel.
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Compact Muon Solenoid
LHC, CERN