Can the Electroweak Symmetry-breaking Sector Be Hidden?

Abstract

In a recent paper, Chivukula and Golden claimed that the electroweak symmetry--breaking sector could be hidden if there were many inelastic channels in the longitudinal $WW$ scattering process. They presented a model in which the $W$'s couple to pseudo--Goldstone bosons, which may be difficult to detect experimentally. Because of these inelastic channels, the $WW$ interactions do not become strong in the TeV region. We demonstrate that, despite the reduced $WW$ elastic amplitudes in this model, the total event rate ($\sim 5000$ extra longitudinal $W^+W^-$ pairs produced in one standard SSC year) does not decrease with an increasing number of inelastic channels, and is roughly the same as in a model with a broad high--energy resonance and no inelastic channels.