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CMS-PAS-EXO-25-021
Search for resonant new phenomena in high-mass dilepton final states at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13.6 TeV
Abstract: A search for heavy new resonances decaying into pairs of electrons or muons is presented. The search uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13.6 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2022-2025 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 283 fb$ ^{-1} $. A model-independent search for heavy resonances is conducted covering a wide mass range spanning from 200 GeV to 6 TeV. No significant deviation is observed with respect to the Standard Model expectation. Upper limits are presented on the ratio of the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction to dileptons of a new narrow resonance to that of the Z boson. These provide the most stringent lower limits to date on the mass for various spin-1 particles and spin-2 gravitons in the Randall-Sundrum model. In particular, lower mass limits of 5.55 (4.95) TeV are set on $ \text{Z'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ ($ \text{Z'}_\psi $) bosons at 95% confidence level.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
The dielectron (left) and dimuon (right) invariant mass distribution combining the two $ \eta $ categories of each lepton channel. Two example signal distributions for a $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ with a mass of 2 TeV and a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ with a mass of 3 TeV and coupling parameter of $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} = $ 0.05 are also depicted for illustration.

png pdf
Figure 1-a:
The dielectron (left) and dimuon (right) invariant mass distribution combining the two $ \eta $ categories of each lepton channel. Two example signal distributions for a $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ with a mass of 2 TeV and a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ with a mass of 3 TeV and coupling parameter of $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} = $ 0.05 are also depicted for illustration.

png pdf
Figure 1-b:
The dielectron (left) and dimuon (right) invariant mass distribution combining the two $ \eta $ categories of each lepton channel. Two example signal distributions for a $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ with a mass of 2 TeV and a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ with a mass of 3 TeV and coupling parameter of $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} = $ 0.05 are also depicted for illustration.

png pdf
Figure 2:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance with a width equal to 0.6% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Simulated predictions for $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 2-a:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance with a width equal to 0.6% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Simulated predictions for $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 2-b:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance with a width equal to 0.6% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Simulated predictions for $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 2-c:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance with a width equal to 0.6% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Simulated predictions for $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 3:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance, for widths equal to 0.6%, 3%, 5%, and 10% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). Theoretical cross section predictions for the spin-1 $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 3-a:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance, for widths equal to 0.6%, 3%, 5%, and 10% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). Theoretical cross section predictions for the spin-1 $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 3-b:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance, for widths equal to 0.6%, 3%, 5%, and 10% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). Theoretical cross section predictions for the spin-1 $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 3-c:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-1 resonance, for widths equal to 0.6%, 3%, 5%, and 10% of the resonance mass, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). Theoretical cross section predictions for the spin-1 $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ resonances are shown for comparison.

png pdf
Figure 4:
The observed local p-value for a given resonance mass hypothesis for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom), as a function of the dilepton invariant mass. The four different lines correspond to different signal width hypotheses.

png pdf
Figure 4-a:
The observed local p-value for a given resonance mass hypothesis for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom), as a function of the dilepton invariant mass. The four different lines correspond to different signal width hypotheses.

png pdf
Figure 4-b:
The observed local p-value for a given resonance mass hypothesis for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom), as a function of the dilepton invariant mass. The four different lines correspond to different signal width hypotheses.

png pdf
Figure 4-c:
The observed local p-value for a given resonance mass hypothesis for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom), as a function of the dilepton invariant mass. The four different lines correspond to different signal width hypotheses.

png pdf
Figure 5:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-2 resonance, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Theoretical predictions for the cross section of a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ graviton with a width equal to 0.01, 0.36, and 1.42% corresponding to coupling parameters $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 are also depicted.

png pdf
Figure 5-a:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-2 resonance, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Theoretical predictions for the cross section of a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ graviton with a width equal to 0.01, 0.36, and 1.42% corresponding to coupling parameters $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 are also depicted.

png pdf
Figure 5-b:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-2 resonance, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Theoretical predictions for the cross section of a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ graviton with a width equal to 0.01, 0.36, and 1.42% corresponding to coupling parameters $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 are also depicted.

png pdf
Figure 5-c:
The upper limits at 95% CL on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a spin-2 resonance, relative to the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of a Z boson, for the dielectron channel (top left), the dimuon channel (top right), and their combination (bottom). The shaded bands correspond to the 68 and 95% quantiles for the expected limits. Theoretical predictions for the cross section of a $ \mathrm{G}_\mathrm{KK} $ graviton with a width equal to 0.01, 0.36, and 1.42% corresponding to coupling parameters $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 are also depicted.
Tables

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Table 1:
The observed (Obs.) and expected (Exp.) 95% CL lower limits on the masses of spin-1 $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $ and $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $ bosons.

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Table 2:
Observed (Obs.) and expected (Exp.) 95% CL lower limits on the masses of a spin-2 GKK graviton with coupling parameters of $ k/\overline{M}_\mathrm{Pl} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1.
Summary
A search for resonant new physics in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum has been performed using proton--proton collision data collected at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 283 fb$ ^{-1} $. Events containing high-mass dielectron and dimuon pairs were reconstructed and selected using algorithms optimised for leptons with high transverse momentum. The observed invariant mass distributions are found to be consistent with the predictions of the SM, and no significant excess is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the ratio of the production cross section times branching fraction to dileptons for a new narrow resonance relative to that of the SM Z boson. The results are interpreted in benchmark models predicting spin-1 resonances, including the Sequential Standard Model (SSM) and superstring-inspired scenarios. Lower mass limits of 5.55 (4.95) TeV\ are obtained for the $ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\mathrm{SSM} $\ ($ \mathrm{Z}^{'}_\psi $) models. The results are also interpreted in the context of spin-2 graviton excitations in the Randall--Sundrum model of warped extra dimensions. For a coupling parameter $ k/\overline{M}_{\mathrm{Pl}} $ of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1, graviton masses below 2.5, 4.4, and 5.0 TeV\ are excluded, respectively, at 95% confidence level. The limits obtained for both spin-1 and spin-2 resonances represent the most stringent constraints to date in the dilepton final state.
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