Z'_{B-L} discovery potential at the LHC for \sqrt{s}=7 TeV

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the discovery potential of a Z'_{B-L} gauge boson at the LHC with 7 TeV energy, focusing on dilepton decay channels, and discusses the potential to measure heavy neutrino properties and extend current bounds.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of Z'_{B-L} discovery prospects at 7 TeV LHC, including sensitivity to couplings, mass reach, and signatures involving heavy neutrinos.

Findings

5σ discovery possible up to 1.2 TeV at LHC

Exclusion limits extend to 1.6 TeV at 2σ

Heavy neutrino signatures enable mass measurements

Abstract

We present the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) discovery potential in the Z' sector of a U(1)_{B-L} enlarged Standard Model also encompassing three heavy Majorana neutrinos, for \sqrt{s}=7 centre-of-mass energy, considering both the Z'_{B-L}\rightarrow e^+e^- and Z'_{B-L}\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- decay channels. Electrons provide a higher sensitivity to smaller couplings at small Z'_{B-L} boson masses than do muons. The run of the LHC at \sqrt{s}=7 TeV, assuming at most \int \mathcal{L} \sim 1 fb^{-1}, will be able to give similar results to those that will be available soon at the Tevatron in the lower mass region, and to extend them for a heavier M_{Z'}. A 5\sigma discovery could be possible up to M_{Z'}=1.2(0.9) TeV at the LHC(Tevatron), while a 2\sigma exclusion at the LHC could be possible up to M_{Z'}=1.6 TeV. The new gauge coupling g'_1 can been probed, at 5\sigma, down to \sim (3 \div 4) \cdot 10^{-2} with electrons and down to \sim (4 \div 5) \cdot 10^{-2} with muons, both at the LHC and at the Tevatron, for M_{Z'}=600 GeV. The Z' boson in this model exhibits novel signatures at the LHC, as multi-lepton and multi-jet decays via heavy neutrinos, that allow one to measure the heavy neutrino masses involved. Lastly, the simultaneous measurement of both the heavy neutrino mass and decay length (over a large region of parameter space, the heavy neutrinos are rather long-lived particles) enables an estimate of the absolute mass of the parent light neutrino.