Virtual graviton exchanges at the Z pole in large extra dimensions

Abstract In the framework of quantum gravity propagating in large extra dimensions, the effects of virtual Kaluza–Klein gravitons on the imaginary part of the amplitude of the process e + e − →f f are analyzed at the Z pole. Notably, the interference of the almost-continuous spectrum of the KK gravitons with the standard model resonant amplitude is finite and predictable in terms of the fundamental D-dimensional Planck scale MD. We find that, while the virtual-graviton effect on total cross sections vanishes at tree-level, both angular and polarization asymmetries are modified by terms whose relative effect is at most of order 10−4 for MD>1 TeV. Possible shifts in MZ, due to the changes in Breit–Wigner line shape are also discussed.