LHC Analysis of the Strongly Interacting $WW$ System: Gold-Plated Modes

Abstract

We study the gold-plated purely leptonic signal and background rates at the LHC for the $ZZ,$ $W^{+}W^-,$ $W^\pm Z$ and $W^\pm W^\pm$ final states associated with strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking. We work at an energy of $\sqrt s = 14$ TeV, and develop a combination of back-to-back leptonic, central-jet-vetoing and forwaring cuts that suppresses the Standard-Model backgrounds. We find that the LHC with an annual luminosity of 100 fb$^{-1}$ will achieve a reasonably good sensitivity to the physics of strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking.

14 pages, LaTeX, final version (with minor changes) to appear in Phys. Rev. D; postscript file available via anonymous ftp at ftp://ucdhep.ucdavis.edu/han/sews/paper_ww.ps and figure files separated as figs.uu or *.ps