Massless versus Kaluza-Klein Gravitons at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper discusses how the LHC can distinguish between different models of quantum gravity, specifically massless gravitons in four dimensions and massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons in extra-dimensional theories, estimating potential limits on the Planck mass.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of massless and Kaluza-Klein gravitons at the LHC and estimates model-independent bounds on the Planck mass.

Findings

LHC can differentiate between four-dimensional and extra-dimensional gravity models.

Potential to set a ~5 TeV limit on the Planck mass.

Analysis applicable to 14 TeV LHC operations.

Abstract

We show that the LHC will be able to differentiate between a four-dimensional model with quantum gravity at ~1 TeV where the (massless) graviton becomes strongly coupled to standard model particles at 1 TeV and brane world type models with a large extra-dimensional volume and massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons. We estimate that the 14 TeV LHC could put a limit of the order of ~5 TeV on the four dimensional Planck mass in a model independent way.