New vector bosons and the diphoton excess

Abstract

We consider the possibility that the recently observed diphoton excess at $\sim 750$ GeV can be explained by the decay of a scalar particle ($φ$) to photons. If the scalar is the remnant of a symmetry-breaking sector of some new gauge symmetry, its coupling to photons can be generated by loops of the charged massive vectors of the broken symmetry. If these new $W^\prime$ vector bosons carry color, they can also generate an effective coupling to gluons. In this case the diphoton excess could be entirely explained in a simplified model containing just $φ$ and $W^\prime$. On the other hand if $W^{\prime}$ does not carry color, we show that, provided additional colored particles exist to generate the required $φ$ to gluon coupling, the diphoton excess could be explained by the same $W^{\prime}$ commonly invoked to explain the diboson excess at $\sim 2$ TeV. We also explore possible connections between the diphoton and diboson excesses with the anomalous $t\bar{t}$ forward-backward asymmetry.