Bounds on Flavor Gauge Bosons from Precision Electroweak Data

TL;DR

This paper derives bounds on flavor gauge bosons from precision electroweak measurements, constraining their masses to be between 1-3 TeV across various models, and examines the robustness of these limits.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive indirect limits on flavor gauge bosons from electroweak data for multiple theoretical models.

Findings

Mass limits for flavor gauge bosons are between 1-3 TeV.

Bounds are robust against variations in Higgs mass and certain experimental data.

Different models yield similar mass exclusion ranges.

Abstract

Gauged flavor symmetries at low energies have been proposed in models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking and fermion mass generation. The massive flavor gauge bosons give rise to corrections to precisely measured electroweak quantities. We perform a fit to collider electroweak data and place indirect limits on such new physics. In particular we study several models from the literature: universal coloron; chiral top color; chiral, quark family symmetry; SU(9) and SU(12) chiral, flavor symmetry. The 95% exclusion limits on the mass of the heavy gauge bosons for these models, at their critical coupling for chiral symmetry breaking, typically lie between 1-3 TeV. We discuss the robustness of these bounds with respect to changes in higgs mass, b-quark asymmetry data, the SLD left right asymmetry data, or additional new physics.