LHC searches for top-philic Kaluza-Klein graviton

We study the phenomenology of a massive graviton G with non-universal couplings to the Standard Model (SM) particles. Such a particle can arise as a warped Kaluza-Klein graviton from a framework of the Randall-Sundrum extra-dimension model. In particular, we consider a case in which G is top-philic, i.e., G interacts strongly with the right-handed top quark, resulting in the large top-loop contributions to its production via the gluon fusion and its decays to the SM gauge bosons. We take into account the constraints from the current 13 TeV LHC data on the channels of tt¯, γγ, jj(gg), γZ, and ZZ. Consequently, it is found that the strongest limit for this spin-2 resonance G comes from the tt¯ pair search, which constrains the cutoff scale to be of O(100 GeV) for the right-top coupling of O(1) and the massive graviton mass in the range mG = 2–5 TeV, significantly relaxed compared with the universal G coupling case.