Search for Resonances in the Dilepton Mass Distribution in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

A search for narrow high-mass resonances decaying to electron or muon pairs has been performed using 8 TeV pp collision data collected by the CMS experiment. The dimuon event sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.6 fb$^{-1}$ while the dielectron event sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence for non-standard model physics is observed, and 95\% CL upper limits on the ratio of the cross section times branching fraction of a new boson to the cross section times branching fraction of the Z boson are obtained using this dataset. The analysis excludes, at 95\% confidence level, a Sequential Standard Model Z$^\prime_\mathrm{SSM}$ resonance lighter than 2960 GeV and a superstring-inspired Z$^\prime_{\psi}$ lighter than 2600 GeV. These are the most stringent limits to date.