Search for single production of vector-like quarks decaying to a b quark and a Higgs boson

A search is presented for the singly produced heavy vector-like quark B, in its decay to a Higgs boson and a b quark. The Higgs boson decays to a highly boosted b (b) over bar quark pair and is reconstructed as a single collimated jet. The analysis exploits data collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV at the CERN LHC. The corresponding integrated luminosity is 35.9 fb(-1). The data are in agreement with the background expectations, and upper limits at 95% confidence level on the B quark cross section times the branching ratio are set. For a narrow B quark with a mass between 700 and 1800 GeV, values in the range 1.28-0.07 pb are obtained. Similar sensitivities are achieved also in the case of more realistic scenarios where the production of B quarks with widths of 10, 20 and 30% of the resonance mass are considered. With this search, the current knowledge on vector-like quarks was extended, being this analysis the first at the CERN LHC for the single production of a B quark through its fully hadronic decay channel, and also the first study investigating finite resonance widths of the B quark.