ATLAS sensitivity prospects to W′ and Z′ in the decay channels W′->lnu and Z′->l+l- at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

The ATLAS sensitivities to a high-mass dilepton resonance, and to a lepton-neutrino resonance,are evaluated using full detector simulation. These evaluations use, as benchmarks,models in which new heavy gauge bosons (denoted as W′ and Z′) have the same couplingsas their Standard Model counterparts. In both cases (W′, Z′), at the center-of-mass energy of the initial LHC run (7 TeV), ATLAS is found to be sensitive to a mass range significantly higher than the current limits from direct searches. A total integrated luminosity of 50 pb−1 is found to be enough to extend the W′ exclusion to 1.5 TeV; 100 pb−1 would be enough to extend the Z′ exclusion to 1.3 TeV.