The W and Z boson spin observables as messengers of new physics at LHC

Abstract

The successful LHC operation suggests going beyond the search of excess of events for the quest of new physics. We demonstrate that the eight multipole parameters describing the spin state of the W or Z bosons are able to disentangle their hidden production mechanism. They can be separately extracted from well defined angular asymmetries in the leptonic distribution of boson decays. The discriminating power of this analysis is well illustrated by: (i) polarised top quark decays, (ii) two body decay of heavy resonances, (iii) Drell-Yan production of Z plus jets, (iv) Z boson plus missing transverse energy.