The Strongly Interacting $WW$ System: Gold--Plated Modes

Abstract

In this paper we survey the signals and backgrounds for a strongly-interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector at hadron supercolliders in the TeV region. We study the process pp->WWX, and compute the rates for the ``gold-plated'' channels, where W^{+/-}->l^{+/-}νand Z -> l^+l^- (l = e,μ), for a wide variety of models. Using a forward jet-tag, a central jet-veto and a back-to-back lepton cut to suppress the Standard Model backgrounds, we demonstrate that the SSC and LHC have substantial sensitivity to strong interactions in the electroweak symmetry breaking sector.

39 pages, FERMILAB-Pub-93/040-T, JHU-TIPAC-930008, MAD/PH/747, MSUHEP 93/05, NUB 3060-93 TH, NUHEP-TH-93-13, UCD-93-5 (uses PHYZZX with the tables.tex macro; nine pages of PostScript figures in uuencoded format)