The Physics of Heavy Z' Gauge Bosons

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical motivations, experimental constraints, and potential implications of heavy Z' gauge bosons in particle physics and cosmology, highlighting their role in extensions of the standard model.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of Z' models, discusses current experimental limits, and explores their implications for new physics and cosmology.

Findings

Current collider limits constrain Z' masses and couplings.

Z' models can address the mu problem and dark matter.

Future colliders could discover or further constrain Z' properties.

Abstract

The U(1)' symmetry associated with a possible heavy Z' would have profound implications for particle physics and cosmology. The motivations for such particles in various extensions of the standard model, possible ranges for their masses and couplings, and classes of anomaly-free models are discussed. Present limits from electroweak and collider experiments are briefly surveyed, as are prospects for discovery and diagnostic study at future colliders. Implications of a Z' are discussed, including an extended Higgs sector, extended neutralino sector, and solution to the mu problem in supersymmetry; exotic fermions needed for anomaly cancellation; possible flavor changing neutral current effects; neutrino mass; possible Z' mediation of supersymmetry breaking; and cosmological implications for cold dark matter and electroweak baryogenesis.