Search for high-mass Z gamma resonances in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 and 13 TeV using jet substructure techniques

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for high-mass Z gamma resonances in proton-proton collisions at 8 and 13 TeV using jet substructure techniques, setting the most stringent limits to date without observing a significant signal.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search method combining jet substructure and b tagging to improve sensitivity to Z gamma resonances in hadronic decay modes.

Findings

No significant excess observed in the data.

Set the most stringent upper limits on resonance production cross sections.

Analyzed a wide mass range from 0.2 to 3.0 TeV.

Abstract

A search for massive resonances decaying to a Z boson and a photon is performed in events with a hadronically decaying Z boson candidate, separately in light-quark and b quark decay modes, identified using jet substructure and advanced b tagging techniques. Results are based on samples of proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at center-of-mass energies of 8 and 13 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 19.7 and 2.7 inverse femtobarns, respectively. The results of the search are combined with those of a similar search in the leptonic decay modes of the Z boson, based on the same data sets. Spin-0 resonances with various widths and with masses in a range between 0.2 and 3.0 TeV are considered. No significant excess is observed either in the individual analyses or the combination. The results are presented in terms of upper limits on the production cross section of such resonances and constitute the most stringent limits to date for a wide range of masses.