Discovery potential for heavy t-tbar resonances in dilepton+jets final states

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the Large Hadron Collider's ability to discover or set limits on heavy t-tbar resonances, specifically Z' bosons, in dilepton plus jets final states at 14 TeV with high luminosity.

Contribution

It provides detailed projections for the discovery potential and exclusion limits for Z' resonances in future LHC runs at 14 TeV with high integrated luminosities.

Findings

Expected 5-sigma discovery reach for Z' bosons at high masses.

Projected upper limits on Z' production cross section and mass.

Enhanced sensitivity with increased integrated luminosity.

Abstract

We examine the prospects for probing heavy top quark-antiquark (t-tbar) resonances at the upgraded LHC in pp collisions at $\root_s = 14 TeV. Heavy t-tbar resonances (Z' bosons) are predicted by several theories that go beyond the standard model. We consider scenarios in which each top quark decays leptonically, either to an electron or a muon, and the data sets correspond to integrated luminosities of \int L dt = 300 /fb and \int L dt = 3000 /fb. We present the expected 5-sigma discovery potential for a Z' resonance as well as the expected upper limits at 95% C.L. on the Z' production cross section and mass in the absence of a discovery.