Search for high-mass Wγ and Zγ resonances using hadronic W/Z boson decays from 139 fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

<p>A search for high-mass charged and neutral bosons decaying to <em>Wγ</em> and <em>Zγ</em> final states is presented in this paper. The analysis uses a data sample of � = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb^{<em>−</em>1} collected by the ATLAS detector during LHC Run 2 operation. The sensitivity of the search is determined using models of the production and decay of spin-1 charged bosons and spin-0/2 neutral bosons. The range of resonance masses explored extends from 1.0 TeV to 6.8 TeV. At these high resonance masses, it is beneficial to target the hadronic decays of the <em>W</em> and <em>Z</em> bosons because of their large branching fractions. The decay products of the high-momentum <em>W/Z</em> bosons are strongly collimated and boosted-boson tagging techniques are employed to improve the sensitivity. No evidence of a signal above the Standard Model backgrounds is observed, and upper limits on the production cross-sections of these bosons times their branching fractions to <em>Wγ</em> and <em>Zγ</em> are derived for various boson production models.</p>