Light U(1) gauge boson coupled to baryon number

Carone, C D
Murayama, H

Publication date

June 1995

Abstract

We discuss the phenomenology of a light U(1) gauge boson, \gamma_B, that couples only to baryon number. Gauging baryon number at high energies can prevent dangerous baryon-number violating operators that may be generated by Planck scale physics. However, we assume at low energies that the new U(1) gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken and that the \gamma_B mass m_B is smaller than m_Z. We show for m_\Upsilon<m_B<m_Z that the \gamma_B coupling \alpha_B can be as large as \sim 0.1 without conflicting with the current experimental constraints. We argue that \alpha_B\sim 0.1 is large enough to produce visible collider signatures and that evidence for the \gamma_B could be hidden in existing LEP data. We show that there are realistic models in ...