Composite effective field theory signal from anomalous quartic gauge couplings for $ZZ(\rightarrow\ell\ell\nu\nu)jj$ and $Z\gamma(\rightarrow\nu\nu\gamma)jj$ productions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how composite anomalous signals influence the sensitivity of searches for anomalous quartic gauge couplings in electroweak $ZZ$ and $Z ext{ } u u ext{ } ext{ } ext{ }jj$ production, revealing significant impacts on Wilson coefficient limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach considering composite anomalous signals in EFT-based searches for quartic gauge couplings, affecting sensitivity and limits.

Findings

Composite anomalous signals significantly alter Wilson coefficient limits.

Sensitivity differences between $ZZ$ and $Z ext{ } u u ext{ } ext{ } ext{ }jj$ channels are reduced.

Background anomalous contributions change limits by up to 27.3%.

Abstract

Parameterization of heavy effects beyond the Standard Model is available using higher-dimension operators of the effective field theory and their Wilson coefficients, where their values are not known. Experimental sensitivity to the Wilson coefficients can be significantly changed in case of the usage of composite anomalous signal, which contains anomalous contributions from background processes in addition to the conventional ones from the signal process. In this work, this approach is applied to the search for anomalous quartic gauge couplings with seven EFT operators in the electroweak production of $ZZ(\rightarrow\ell\ell\nu\nu)jj$ and $Z\gamma(\rightarrow\nu\nu\gamma)jj$ in $pp$ collisions. For the majority of coefficients sensitivity in the former channel is smaller than that in the latter one. However, it is shown that composite anomalous signal affects $ZZ(\rightarrow\ell\ell\nu\nu)jj$ production stronger than $Z\gamma(\rightarrow\nu\nu\gamma)jj$ production, making sensitivities closer. One-dimensional limits on the Wilson coefficients are changed up to 27.3% and 9.7% due to the background anomalous contributions in $ZZ(\rightarrow\ell\ell\nu\nu)jj$ and $Z\gamma(\rightarrow\nu\nu\gamma)jj$ productions respectively.