Searches for new hadronic resonances typically focus on high-mass spectra due to overwhelming QCD backgrounds and detector trigger rates. We present a study of searches for relatively low-mass hadronic resonances at the LHC in the case that the resonance is boosted by recoiling against a well-measured high-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ probe such as a muon, photon or jet. The hadronic decay of the resonance is then reconstructed either as a single large-radius jet or as a resolved pair of standard narrow-radius jets, balanced in transverse momentum to the probe. We show that the existing 2015 LHC data set of $pp$ collisions with $\int \mathcal{L}dt=4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ should already have powerful sensitivity to a generic $Z^{\prime }$ model which couples only to quarks, for $Z^{\prime }$ masses ranging from $20–500\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{c}}^2$.

• Received 2 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.055001