Bottom-quark Fusion Processes at the LHC for Probing $Z^{\prime}$ Models and B-meson Decay Anomalies

Understand

We investigate models of a heavy neutral gauge boson Z' which could explain anomalies in B meson decays reported by the LHCb experiment.

• In these models, the Z' boson couples mostly to third generation fermions.
• We show that bottom quarks arising from gluon splitting can fuse into Z' as an essential production mechanism at the LHC, thereby allowing to probe these models.
• The study is performed within a generic framework for explaining the B anomalies that can be accommodated in well motivated models.