Hide and Seek with the Third Family Hypercharge Model's $Z^\prime$ at the Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper investigates the detectability of a predicted $Z^\u00b0$ boson from the Third Family Hypercharge Model at the LHC, analyzing current limits and future sensitivities across multiple decay channels.

Contribution

It reinterprets LHC search limits within the model's parameter space and assesses the potential of the high-luminosity run to probe this new physics.

Findings

Current LHC limits are surprisingly weak for this model.

High-luminosity LHC will significantly improve sensitivity.

Multiple decay channels offer promising detection prospects.

Abstract

The Third Family Hypercharge Model predicts a $Z^\prime$ gauge boson with flavour dependent couplings which has been used to explain anomalies in meson decay processes which involve the $b\rightarrow s\mu^+\mu^-$ transition. The model predicts that a TeV-scale $Z^\prime$ should decay to particle-antiparticle pairs of muons, taus, top quarks and bottom quarks with appreciable branching ratios. We reinterpret various ATLAS and CMS search limits for $Z^\prime$ production followed by such decays at the LHC over a parameter space of the model that results from a successful combined fit to the $b\rightarrow s l^+ l^-$ data and precision electroweak observables. Current exclusions in parameter space and expected sensitivities of the various different channels in the high-luminosity run are compared. We find that the high-luminosity run of the LHC will significantly increase the sensitivity to the model beyond the existing observational limits, which we find to be surprisingly weak.