$W^{+}Z$ and $W^{+}{\gamma }^{\ast }$ Backgrounds to Strong $W^{+}{W}^{+}$ Scattering at the LHC

Abstract

Because of inevitable blind spots at high rapidity and low transverse momentum, the process $\overline{q}q\to l^{+}{l}^{-}{l}^{+}\nu$ provides a surprisingly large background to the $W^{+}{W}^{+}\to l^{+}\nu l^{+}\nu$ signal associated with strong $WW$ scattering. Previous calculations of the total background are approximately doubled, and the estimate of the ``no-lose'' luminosity at the LHC to observe manifestations of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism is increased to between $\sim 100$ and $\sim 140$ fb${}^{-1}$.

Comments: 13 pages, Latex, uuencoded figures