Search for Single Production of a Vector Like T Quark Decaying to a Higgs Boson and a Leptonically Decaying Top Quark

We search for singly produced vector-like top quark partners (T) in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC. This is of particular interest, as the rate of single production of TeV-scale vector-like quarks increases faster than the rate of pair production with increasing centre-of-mass energy. The decay of a vector-like T quark into a Higgs boson and a top quark is searched for. The top quark decay includes an electron or a muon and the Higgs boson decays into a pair of b quarks. No significant excess over standard model backgrounds is observed. Exclusion limits on the production cross section times branching fraction, as well as exclusion limits on T quark coupling parameters are derived in the mass-range of 700 GeV to 1800 GeV. For a mass of 1000 GeV, we exclude production cross section times branching fractions above 0.9 pb and 0.6 pb at 95\% confidence level, assuming left and right handed coupling of the T quark to standard model particles, respectively. $$\textit{This document has been revised with respect to the version dated April 1, 2016.}$$