$B$ anomalies under the lens of electroweak precision

TL;DR

This paper explores how to reconcile electroweak precision data with observed B anomalies, proposing minimal Standard Model extensions that could include a TeV-scale Z' boson or leptoquarks, consistent with current constraints.

Contribution

It identifies correlations in effective field theory that allow explaining B anomalies without violating electroweak precision constraints, proposing viable minimal extensions of the Standard Model.

Findings

Electroweak data constrains minimal flavour violating solutions to B anomalies.

Correlations in Standard Model Effective Field Theory enable new physics explanations.

Potential discovery of Z' boson or leptoquarks at TeV scale within LHC reach.

Abstract

The measurements carried out at LEP and SLC projected us into the precision era of electroweak physics. This has also been relevant in the theoretical interpretation of LHCb and Belle measurements of rare $B$ semileptonic decays, paving the road for new physics with the inference of lepton universality violation in $R_{K^{(*)}}$ ratios. The simplest explanation of these flavour anomalies -- sizeable one-loop contributions respecting Minimal Flavour Violation -- is currently disfavoured by electroweak precision data. In this work, we discuss how to completely relieve the present tension between electroweak constraints and one-loop minimal flavour violating solutions to $R_{K^{(*)}}$. We determine the correlations in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory that highlight the existence of such a possibility. Then, we consider minimal extensions of the Standard Model where our effective-field-theory picture can be realized. We discuss how these solutions to $b \to s \ell \ell$ anomalies, respecting electroweak precision and without any new source of flavour violation, may point to the existence of a $Z^{\prime}$ boson at around the TeV scale, within the discovery potential of LHC, or to leptoquark scenarios.