We assess current experimental constraints on the bi-doublet + singlet model of top compositeness previously proposed in the literature. This model extends the standard model's spectrum by adding a custodially-embedded vector-like electroweak bi-doublet of quarks and a vector-like electroweak singlet quark. While either of those states alone would produce a model in tension with constraints from precision electroweak data, in combination they can produce a viable model. We show that current precision electroweak data, in the wake of the Higgs discovery, accommodate the model and we explore the impact of direct collider searches for the partners of the top quark.

This talk discusses the possibility of new physics within the strong gauge interactions, specifically the idea of an extended color gauge group that is spontaneously broken to QCD. After a brief review of the literature, three of our recent pieces of work on coloron phenomenology are summarized. First, some key results on coloron production to NLO at hadron colliders are described. Next, a method of using associated production of colorons and weak vector bosons to better determine coloron couplings is discussed. Finally, a new model that naturally realizes flavor physics is reviewed.

We introduce a toy model implementing the proposal of using a custodial symmetry to protect the Z b_L bbar_L coupling from large corrections. This "doublet-extended standard model" adds a weak doublet of fermions (including a heavy partner of the top quark) to the particle content of the standard model in order to implement an O(4) x U(1)_X = SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x P_LR x U(1)_X symmetry in the top-quark mass generating sector. This symmetry is softly broken to the gauged SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y electroweak symmetry by a Dirac mass M for the new doublet; adjusting the value of M allows us to explore the range of possibilities between the O(4)-symmetric (M to 0) and standard-model-like (M to infinity) limits.