CERN-PH-EP/2012-251

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation The CMS Collaboration∗ Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb−1 recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up- and down-type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant CKM matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95 % confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about ±20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions. Submitted to Physical Review D c © 2014 CERN for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration. CC-BY-3.0 license ∗See Appendix A for the list of collaboration members a