Implications of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with vectorlike quarks and a ∼125 GeV Higgs boson

We investigate the implications of models that achieve a Standard Model-like Higgs boson of mass near 125 GeV by introducing additional TeV-scale supermultiplets in the vectorlike 10 + (10) over bar representation of SU(5), within the context of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We study the resulting mass spectrum of superpartners, comparing and contrasting to the usual gauge-mediated and constrained minimal supersymmetric Standard Model scenarios, and discuss implications for LHC supersymmetry searches. This approach implies that exotic vectorlike fermions t(1,2)', b', and tau' should be within the reach of the LHC. We discuss the masses, the couplings to electroweak bosons, and the decay branching ratios of the exotic fermions, with and without various unification assumptions for the mass and mixing parameters. We comment on LHC prospects for discovery of the exotic fermion states, both for decays that are prompt and for those that are nonprompt on detector-crossing time scales.