Prospects for a measurement of the W boson mass in the all-jets final state at hadron colliders

Abstract

Abstract Precise measurements of the mass of the W boson are important to test the overall consistency of the Standard Model of particle physics. The current best measurements of the W boson mass come from single production measurements at hadron colliders in its decay mode to a lepton (electron or muon) and a neutrino and pair production of W bosons at lepton colliders, where both the leptonic and hadronic decay modes of the W boson have been considered. In this study, prospects for a measurement of the W boson mass in the all-jet final state at hadron colliders are presented. The feasibility of this measurement takes advantage of numerous recent developments in the field of jet substructure. Compared to other methods for measuring the W mass, a measurement in the all-jets final state would be complementary in methodology and have systematic uncertainties orthogonal to previous measurements. We have estimated the main experimental and theoretical uncertainties affecting a measurement in the all-jet final state. With new trigger strategies, a statistical uncertainty for the measurement of the mass difference between the Z and W bosons of 30 MeV could be reached with HL-LHC data corresponding to 3000 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. However, in order to reach that precision, the current understanding of non-perturbative contributions to the invariant mass of W → $$ q\overline{q}^{\prime } $$ q q ¯ ′ and Z → $$ b\overline{b} $$ b b ¯ jets will need to be refined. Similar strategies will also allow the reach for generic boosted resonances searches in hadronic channels to be extended.