Searches for electroweak states at future plasma wakefield colliders

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of future plasma wakefield colliders to discover new electroweak particles, emphasizing the importance of realistic beam effects and diverse collider configurations for search strategies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of electroweak multiplet searches at multi-TeV plasma wakefield colliders, incorporating beam-beam effects and comparing various collider setups.

Findings

Beam-beam effects significantly alter search strategies.

Low-energy luminosity spectrum is crucial for detection.

Electroweak targets remain accessible despite technical challenges.

Abstract

We quantify the discovery potential of future multi-TeV plasma wakefield colliders for new electroweak multiplets. We include beam-beam effects through realistic luminosity spectra, comparing five collider configurations: $e^+e^-$ and $e^-e^-$ machines with round- and flat-beams, and a $\gamma\gamma$ collider. The beam-beam effects qualitatively change search strategies relative to idealized mono-energetic lepton colliders, highlighting the importance of the low-energy part of the luminosity spectrum and additional beam-induced initial-state channels. Our results have implications for accelerator R&D priorities, since key electroweak targets may remain accessible even if efficient positron acceleration and flat-beam delivery prove technically challenging at the multi-TeV scale.