Detecting and Discriminating New Neutral Gauge Bosons at the International Linear Collider

Abstract

New neutral gauge bosons, Z',s, are predicted by many models of physics beyond the Standard electroweak theory. It is possible that a Z' would be discovered early in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) program. The next step would be to measure its properties to identify the underlying theory that gave rise to the Z'. We here discuss in this context the foreseeable sensitivity to Z's of fermion-pair production observables at an e+e- linear collider, especially as regards the potential of distinguishing different Z' models once such deviations are observed.