THE EFFECTS OF A NEW VECTOR BOSON ON THE TOP-QUARK CROSS-SECTION AT THE TEVATRON

It has recently been shown that a new neutral vector boson Z', with a mass of order 1 TeV and weak couplings to quarks only, could explain b oth the anomalous values of R(b) and R(c) and the apparent excess of l arge E(tau) jet events measured by the CDF collaboration. We calculate the effects of Z' exchange on the t (t) over bar production cross sec tion at Tevatron p (p) over bar collider energies, including next-to-l eading-order QCD corrections. We find a significant enhancement of the cross section and study the resulting t (t) over bar invariant mass d istribution, which could provide a decisive test of the Z' model.