Pair production of the singlet vector-like B quark at the CLIC

Abstract Vector-like quarks (VLQs) are a common feature of many scenarios of new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM), which generally decay into a SM third-generation quark with a SM gauge boson or a Higgs boson. The presence of a new exotic decay mode of VLQs will reduce the branching ratios of these standard decay modes and thus relax the current mass exclusion limits from LHC experiments. Based on a model-independent framework, we investigate the prospect of discovering the pair production of the weak-singlet VLQ- B at the future 3-TeV Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), by focusing on the final states including one Z boson and four b -jets via two types of modes: Z ^+ ^- Z → ℓ + ℓ - and Z Z → ν ν ¯. By performing a rapid detector simulation of the signal and background events, and considering the initial state radiation and beamstrahlung effects, the exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level and the 5 5 σ discovery prospects are respectively obtained on the branching ratio of B bZ B → b Z and the VLQ- B masses at the future 3-TeV CLIC with an integrated luminosity of 5 ab ^-1 - 1.