Exclusion of heavy, broad resonances from precise measurements of WZ and VH final states at the LHC

Understand

A novel search for heavy vector resonances in the $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ and $Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ final states in association with a leptonically decaying $V$ ($Z$ or $W$) and $W$-only respectively, is proposed.

• It is argued that excesses with respect to the Standard Model prediction should be observed in all final states (0, 1 or 2 leptons), with the 1-lepton final state being the strongest.
• Since the relative strengths of these excesses depend on branching ratios and efficiencies, this is a clear signal for the presence of heavy resonances or their low mass tails.
• A general vector-triplet model is used to explore the discovery potential as a function of the resonance mass and width.