Search for Heavy Gauge Bosons Decaying to Tau Leptons using Vector Boson Fusion Processes in Proton-proton Collisions at CMS*

One primary goal of particle physics is to examine the properties of particles and the forces by which they interact. Although physicists have previously used a theoretical framework called the Standard Model (SM) to describe these particles and force interactions, the SM fails to explain several recently discovered phenomena, such as anomalous B-meson decay rates. Therefore, theoretical extensions to the SM called beyond standard model (BSM) frameworks have been introduced to offer solutions to these problems. A common characteristic of BSM frameworks is the manifestation of new particles with TeV-scale masses. These high-mass particles can be probed in proton-proton (pp) collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This presentation will describe a search for a heavy spin-1 boson (Z’) with non-universal fermion couplings (NUFC) that uses ditau final states from vector boson fusion (VBF) processes. The analysis is performed using pp data at √(s)=13 TeV collected from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb^-1. The analysis provides the best sensitivity to date for the NUFC models considered, probing Z’ masses up to 2.5 TeV, depending on the Z’ coupling to the SM weak bosons.