Search for W-prime boson resonances decaying to a top quark and a bottom quark

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for W-prime boson resonances decaying into top and bottom quarks using Fermilab Tevatron data, setting mass limits and coupling constraints due to no observed excess.

Contribution

First search for W-prime boson decaying to third generation quarks at Tevatron, establishing new mass limits and coupling constraints.

Findings

No significant excess observed in invariant mass distribution.

Lower mass limits set at 731-768 GeV depending on decay mode.

Constraints on W-prime boson couplings to fermions.

Abstract

We search for the production of a heavy W-prime gauge boson that decays to third generation quarks in 0.9 fb-1 of ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV, collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. We find no significant excess in the final-state invariant mass distribution and set upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction. For a left-handed W-prime boson with SM couplings, we set a lower mass limit of 731 GeV. For right-handed W-prime bosons, we set lower mass limits of 739 GeV if the W-prime boson decays to both leptons and quarks and 768 GeV if the W-prime boson decays only to quarks. We also set limits on the coupling of the W-prime boson to fermions as a function of its mass.