Color-octet scalar decays to a gluon and an electroweak gauge boson in the Manohar-Wise model

Abstract

We present one loop results for the amplitudes giving rise to couplings between a color octet scalar, a gluon, and an electroweak gauge boson. These amplitudes could signal new physics in $\gamma$ jet, $Z$ jet and $W$ jet production at the LHC. We compute the relevant branching ratios and identify regions of parameter space where these decay modes become important. This can happen for scalar masses below the threshold for decay into heavy quark pairs ($t\bar t$ and $t\bar b$); or for small Yukawa couplings in which case the colored scalars are fermiophobic. In the case of light scalars, ${\cal B}(S\to \gamma g)$ can reach up to 10\% whereas ${\cal B}(S\to Z g)$ can reach a few percent. In the fermiophobic region of parameter space, ${\cal B}(S\to \gamma g)$ and ${\cal B}(S\to Z g)$ can reach up to 72\% and 28\% respectively, whereas ${\cal B}(S\to g g)$ can be 100\%. For the charged scalar, the decay mode ${\cal B}(S^\pm \to W^\pm g)$ can become dominant in both scenarios.