Search for a heavy resonance decaying into a Z boson and a Z or W boson in 2$\ell$2q final states at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for heavy resonances decaying into ZW or ZZ boson pairs in 2$ ext{l}$2q final states at 13 TeV, setting limits on new particles with masses from 400 to 4500 GeV using CMS data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search strategy for heavy resonances in 2$ ext{l}$2q final states, optimizing for different mass ranges and providing new exclusion limits.

Findings

No significant excess observed above background.

Set upper limits on production cross sections for new resonances.

Excluded W$'$ bosons and bulk gravitons within certain mass ranges.

Abstract

A search has been performed for heavy resonances decaying to ZZ or ZW in 2$\ell$2q final states, with two charged leptons ($\ell=$ e,$\mu$) produced by the decay of a Z boson, and two quarks produced by the decay of a W or Z boson. The analysis is sensitive to resonances with masses in the range from 400 to 4500 GeV. Two categories are defined based on the merged or resolved reconstruction of the hadronically decaying vector boson, optimized for high- and low-mass resonances, respectively. The search is based on data collected during 2016 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. No excess is observed in the data above the standard model background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section of heavy, narrow spin-1 and spin-2 resonances are derived as a function of the resonance mass, and exclusion limits on the production of W$'$ bosons and bulk graviton particles are calculated in the framework of the heavy vector triplet model and warped extra dimensions, respectively.