Speaker: Luca Panizzi, Southampton University

When/Where: 4:30 PM, July 1st, 2015 (Sala F-210)

Abstract: New heavy quarks are predicted in various scenarios of new physics; depending on their nature they can mix with SM quarks or they can even mediate the production of dark matter states. Theoretically-motivated scenarios of new physics in general predict the
existence of multiple new quarks with different couplings with the SM states or dark matter. Experimental searches of new quarks at the LHC, on the other hand, have so far mostly tested minimal extensions of the SM with new quarks which specific decay patterns. No signals have been detected, pushing mass limits above 600-800 GeV, depending on different assumptions about their couplings to SM states. The reinterpretation of mass bounds from experimental searches to test theoretical models is therefore not always straightforward.
I will describe model independent methods to recast data from experimental searches. These methods can be used to test general scenarios with any number of extra quarks which can mix with all SM families or couple to dark matter.