Unique Identification of Graviton Exchange Effects in e^+ e^- Collisions

Abstract

Many types of new physics can lead to contact interaction-like modifications in e^+ e^- processes below direct production threshold. We examine the possibility of uniquely identifying the effects of graviton exchange, which are anticipated in many extra dimensional theories, from amongst this large set of models by using the moments of the angular distribution of the final state particles. In the case of the e^+ e^- --> f bar{f} process we demonstrate that this technique allows for the unique identification of the graviton exchange signature at the 5 sigma level for mass scales as high as 6 sqrt(s). The extension of this method to the e^+ e^- --> W^+ W^- process is also discussed.