Discovery and Identification of W' Bosons in e gamma to nu q +X

Abstract

We examine the sensitivity of the process e gamma to nu q +X to W' bosons which arise in various extensions of the standard model. We consider photon spectra from both the Weizsacker Williams process and from a backscattered laser. The process is found to be sensitive to W' masses up to several TeV, depending on the model, the center of mass energy, the integrated luminosity, and assumptions regarding systematic errors. If extra gauge bosons were discovered first in other experiments, the process could also be used to measure W' couplings. This measurement would provide information that could be used to unravel the underlying theory, complementary to measurements at the Large Hadron Collider.