Searching for composite Higgs models at the LHC

Composite Higgs models have the potential to provide a solution to the hierarchy problem and a dynamical explanation for the generation of the Higgs potential. They can be tested at the LHC as the new sector which underlies electroweak symmetry breaking must become strong in the TeV regime, which implies additional bound states beyond the Higgs. In this paper, we first discuss prospects and search strategies for top partners (and other quark partners) in the strongly coupled sector, which we study in an effective field theory setup. In the second part of the proceedings, we go beyond the effective field theory approach. We discuss potential UV embeddings for composite Higgs models which contain a Higgs as well as top partners. We show that in all of these models, additional pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone bosons beyond the Higgs are present. In particular, all of the models contain a pseudoscalar which couples to the Standard Model gauge fields through Wess–Zumino–Witten terms, providing a prime candidate for a di-boson (including a di-photon) resonance. The models also contain colored pNGBs which can be searched for at the LHC.