Signatures for Heavy $\bf Z'$ Bosons at Hadron Colliders

Abstract

We discuss three promising diagnostic probes of the couplings of a possible heavy $Z'$ boson at hadron colliders: the forward-backward asymmetry into leptons, the rare decay $Z' \ra W^{\pm} \ell^{\mp} ν$, and associated production $pp \ra Z'W,\; Z'Z$. A general model-independent framework is proposed for interpreting these and other data. Clean tests of whether a new $W'$ couples to right-handed currents, of the ratio $g_R/g_L$ of gauge couplings, and of the non-abelian vertex in left-right symmetric models are described.