Search for Z′ bosons decaying to pairs of heavy Majorana neutrinos in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics 2023-11, Vol.2023 (11), p.181
• Main Authors: Van Doninck, W., De Lentdecker, G., Samalan, A., Vermassen, B., Benecke, A., Barroso Ferreira Filho, M., Wang, J., Mao, Y., Lu, C., Avila, C., Finger, M., Ellithi Kamel, A., Denegri, D., Diab, B., Fontana Santos Alves, B. A., Ochando, C., Zghiche, A., Chabert, E. C., Meuser, D., Meyer, A., Mondal, S., Mukherjee, S., Saggio, A., Molnar, J., Sandeep, K., Singla, A., Gola, M., Ranjan, K., Bhattacharya, S., Aziz, T., Kumar, M., Suryadevara, P., Kumar, S., Nayak, A., Pandey, S., Pellecchia, A., Masetti, G., Rossi, A. M., Siroli, G. P., Robutti, E., Gasparini, U., Calzaferri, S., Piccinelli, A., Rossi, A., Bruschini, D., Mandorli, G., Soffi, L., Mariotti, C., Cossutti, F., Choi, S., Tamulaitis, G., Bubanja, I., Awan, M. I. M., Gallinaro, M., Seixas, J., Adzic, P., Folgueras, S., Matorras, F., Gouskos, L., Haranko, M., Pfeiffer, A., Schweiger, K., Gurpinar Guler, E., Turkcapar, S., Stylianou, N., Brown, C. E., Davies, J., Kwon, T., Brainerd, C., Yao, Y., Regnard, S., Karathanasis, G., Bright-Thonney, S., Grünendahl, S., Mantilla, C., McBride, P., Pastika, N., Reinsvold Hall, A., Weber, H. A., Askew, A., Baarmand, M. M., Kumar Verma, R., Cali, I. A., Cremaldi, L. M., Hay, L., Marzocchi, B., Morse, D. M., Kwan, S., Jung, A. W., Geurts, F. J. M., de Barbaro, P., Taus, R., Heindl, M., Huang, T., Hegde, V., Banerjee, S., Herndon, M., Borshch, V., Dermenev, A., Savrin, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bosons; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Collisions; Confidence intervals; Elementary Particles; Flavor (particle physics); High energy physics; Large Hadron Collider; Leptons; Luminosity; Mass distribution; Neutrinos; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Protons; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Regular Article - Experimental Physics; Relativity Theory; Searching; Solenoids; String Theory
• ISSN: 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP11(2023)181

A bstract A search for the production of pairs of heavy Majorana neutrinos (N ℓ ) from the decays of Z′ bosons is performed using the CMS detector at the LHC. The data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV, with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb − 1 . The signature for the search is an excess in the invariant mass distribution of the final-state objects, two same-flavor leptons (e or μ ) and at least two jets. No significant excess of events beyond the expected background is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the Z′ production cross section and its branching fraction to a pair of N ℓ , as functions of N ℓ and Z′ boson masses ( m N ℓ and m Z ′ , respectively) for m Z ′ from 0.4 to 4.6 TeV and m N ℓ from 0.1 TeV to m Z ′ / 2. In the theoretical framework of a left-right symmetric model, exclusion bounds in the m N ℓ - m Z ′ plane are presented in both the electron and muon channels. The observed upper limit on m Z ′ reaches up to 4.42 TeV. These are the most restrictive limits to date on the mass of N ℓ as a function of the Z′ boson mass.