The Strongly Interacting $WW$ System: Gold--Plated Modes

Abstract

In this paper we survey the signals and backgrounds for a strongly-interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector at hadron supercolliders in the TeV region. We study the process pp->WWX, and compute the rates for the ``gold-plated'' channels, where W^{+/-}->l^{+/-}νand Z -> l^+l^- (l = e,μ), for a wide variety of models. Using a forward jet-tag, a central jet-veto and a back-to-back lepton cut to suppress the Standard Model backgrounds, we demonstrate that the SSC and LHC have substantial sensitivity to strong interactions in the electroweak symmetry breaking sector.