Z′gauge bosons at the Fermilab Tevatron

We study the discovery potential of the Tevatron for a $Z^{\prime }$ gauge boson. We introduce a parametrization of the $Z^{\prime }$ signal which provides a convenient bridge between collider searches and specific $Z^{\prime }$ models. The cross section for $p\overline{p}\to Z^{\prime }X\to {\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}X$ depends primarily on the $Z^{\prime }$ mass and the $Z^{\prime }$ decay branching fraction into leptons times the average square coupling to up and down quarks. If the quark and lepton masses are generated as in the standard model, then the $Z^{\prime }$ bosons accessible at the Tevatron must couple to fermions proportionally to a linear combination of baryon and lepton numbers in order to avoid the limits on $Z-Z^{\prime }$ mixing. More generally, we present several families of U(1) extensions of the standard model that include as special cases many of the $Z^{\prime }$ models discussed in the literature. Typically, the CDF and D0 experiments are expected to probe $Z^{\prime }$-fermion couplings down to 0.1 for $Z^{\prime }$ masses in the 500–800 GeV range, which in various models would substantially improve the limits set by the LEP experiments.