Interpretation of vector-like quark searches: the case of a heavy gluon in composite Higgs models and vector-like quarks

Pair production of new vector-like quarks in $pp$ collisions is considered model independent as it is usually dominated by QCD production. Nonetheless, the presence of a new massive color octet (heavy gluon) in some composite Higgs models may modify the pair production rate of vector-like quarks. This scenario is considered and the possible differences between the usual QCD production and the production mediated via heavy gluons is studied. The sensitivity to these differences in the LHC (run-1 and run-2) are studied. No sizeable differences have been found, which suggests that the published experimental results can be easily reinterpreted by a simple cross-section scaling. This reinterpretation has been also done for the run-1 results published by the collaborations.