Stringent dilepton bounds on left-right models using LHC data

In canonical left-right symmetric models the lower mass bounds on the charged gauge bosons are in the ballpark of $3-4$ TeV, resulting into much stronger limits on the neutral gauge boson ZR, making its production unreachable at the LHC. However, if one evokes different patterns of left-right symmetry breaking the ZR might be lighter than the WR^\± motivating an independent ZR collider study. In this work, we use the 8 TeV ATLAS $20.3$ fb⁻¹ luminosity data to derive robust bounds on the ZR mass using dilepton data. %because they provide the most restrictive limits due to the sizable ZR-lepton couplings. We find strong lower bounds on the ZR mass for different right-handed gauge couplings, excluding ZR masses up to \~ 3.2TeV. For the canonical LR model we place a lower mass bound of \~ 2.5TeV. Our findings are almost independent of the right-handed neutrino masses (\~ 2\\,% effect) and applicable to general left-right models.