Exclusion of heavy, broad resonances from precise measurements of $WZ$ and $VH$ final states at the LHC
Résumé
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. Recent Higgs to $b{\bar{b}}$ observation data reported by the experiments ATLAS and CMS are used to test the model. Current limits are extended to resonance widths over mass as large as 9%.