A search for the pair production of heavy vector-like partners and of the top and bottom quarks has been performed by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC using proton–proton collisions at . The data sample was collected in 2016 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 . Final states studied for production include those where one of the quarks decays via and the other via , , or , where is a Higgs boson. For the case, final states include those where one of the quarks decays via and the other , , or . Events with two oppositely charged electrons or muons, consistent with coming from the decay of a boson, and jets are investigated. The number of observed events is consistent with standard model background estimations. Lower limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the masses of the and quarks for a range of branching fractions. Assuming 100% branching fractions for , and , and quark mass values below 1280 and 1130 , respectively, are excluded.

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