Search for heavy resonances decaying to a top quark and a bottom quark in the lepton+jets final state in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for heavy W' bosons decaying into top and bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, setting the most stringent exclusion limits to date up to 3.6 TeV.

Contribution

First search for W' bosons decaying to top and bottom quarks at 13 TeV with new exclusion limits up to 3.6 TeV.

Findings

No evidence for W' boson production was observed.

Right-handed W' bosons are excluded up to 3.6 TeV.

Limits depend on the coupling scenario.

Abstract

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances decaying to a top quark and a bottom quark using data collected by the CMS experiment at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV in 2016. The data set analyzed corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 inverse femtobarns. Final states that include a single lepton (e, mu), multiple jets, and missing transverse momentum are analyzed. No evidence is found for the production of a W' boson, and the production of right-handed W' bosons is excluded at 95% confidence level for masses up to 3.6 TeV depending on the scenario considered. Exclusion limits for W' bosons are also presented as a function of their coupling strength to left- and right-handed fermions. These limits on a W' boson decaying via a top and a bottom quark are the most stringent published to date.