Paper detail

$t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ signatures through the lens of color-octet scalars

We reinterpret two recent LHC searches for events containing four top quarks ($t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$) in the context of supersymmetric models with Dirac gauginos and color-octet scalars (sgluons). We explore whether sgluon contributions to the four-top production cross section $σ(pp \to t\bar{t}t\bar{t})$ can accommodate an excess of four-top events recently reported by the ATLAS collaboration. We also study constraints on these models from an ATLAS search for new phenomena with jets and missing transverse energy ($E_{\text{T}}^{\text{miss}}$) sensitive to signals with four top quarks. We find that these two analyses provide complementary constraints, with the jets + $E_{\text{T}}^{\text{miss}}$ search exceeding the four-top cross section measurement in sensitivity for sgluons heavier than about 800 GeV. We ultimately find that either a scalar or a pseudoscalar sgluon can currently fit the ATLAS excess in a range of reasonable benchmark scenarios, though a pseudoscalar in minimal Dirac gaugino models is ruled out. We finally offer sensitivity projections for these analyses at the HL-LHC, mapping the $5σ$ discovery potential in sgluon parameter space and computing exclusion limits at 95% CL in scenarios where no excess is found.