Interference between W-prime and W in single-top quark production processes

Abstract

The paper is devoted to studies of prospects to search for hypothetical W-prime gauge bosons at hadron colliders via single-top quark production process. A special attention is paid to the interference between the Standard Model (SM) W and W-prime} boson contributions. A model independent analysis is performed for a wide interval of W-prime} masses potentially acceptable for a detection at the Tevatron and LHC. It is shown that the interference contribution to the cross section of the most promising s-channel single top production mode could be as large as 30 % for certain parameter points which is comparable to NLO effects computed in previous studies separately for the W-prime signal and the SM single-top background. The interference contribution affects particle distributions and has to be taken into account for more accurate W-prime signal and background simulation.