Search for resonances decaying to three W bosons in the hadronic final state in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for Kaluza-Klein excited vector boson resonances, W$_\mathrm{KK}$, decaying in cascade to three W bosons via a scalar radion R, W$_\mathrm{KK}$ $\to$ WR $\to$ WWW, with two or three massive jets is presented. The search is performed with proton-proton collision data recorded at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, during 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Two final states are simultaneously probed, one where the two W bosons produced by the R decay are reconstructed as separate, large-radius, massive jets, and one where they are merged in a single large-radius jet. The observed data are in agreement with the standard model expectations. Limits are set on the product of the W$_\mathrm{KK}$ resonance cross section and branching fraction to three W bosons in an extended warped extra-dimensional model and are the first of their kind at the LHC.