Search for W? bosons decaying to a top and a bottom quark at s=13TeV in the hadronic final state

Abstract

A search is performed for W? bosons decaying to a top and a bottom quark in the all-hadronic final state, in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analyzed data were collected by the CMS experiment between 2016 and 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb?1. Deep neural network algorithms are used to identify the jet initiated by the bottom quark and the jet containing the decay products of the top quark when the W boson from the top quark decays hadronically. No excess above the estimated standard model background is observed. Upper limits on the production cross sections of W? bosons decaying to a top and a bottom quark are set. Both left- and right-handed W? bosons with masses below 3.4 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, and the most stringent limits to date on W? bosons decaying to a top and a bottom quark in the all-hadronic final state are obtained. � 2021 The Author(s)