LHC signals ofT-odd heavy quarks in the Littlest Higgs model

Recently proposed Little Higgs models present a viable solution to thenaturalness problem of the Standard Model. An additional discrete symmetry,called T-parity, has been included in the simplest Little Higgs models to evadethe constraints arising from electroweak precision data. The Littlest Higgsmodel with T-parity (LHT) not only predicts a set of new fermions in additionto the heavy gauge bosons of the original Little Higgs model, but also providesa new candidate for dark matter. In this paper, we study two particularlyinteresting signatures of T-odd fermion pair production at the LHC, namely, (a) jj + l^+ l^- + missing E_T and (b) jj + b \bar b + l^\pm + missing E_T. Using a parton level Monte Carlo event generator, we evaluate both the signalas well as the standard model background profile for a selected set of modelparameters thereby developing a good discriminator. Finally, we scan theparameter space and delineate the possible discovery region in the same.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure