Z' gauge bosons at the Fermilab Tevatron

We study the discovery potential of the Tevatron for a Z' gauge boson. We introduce a parametrization of the Z' signal which provides a convenient bridge between collider searches and specific Z' models. The cross section for pp¯→Z'X→ℓ⁺ℓ^-X depends primarily on the Z' mass and the Z' decay branching fraction into leptons times the average square coupling to up and down quarks. If the quark and lepton masses are generated as in the standard model, then the Z' bosons accessible at the Tevatron must couple to fermions proportionally to a linear combination of baryon and lepton numbers in order to avoid the limits on Z-Z' mixing. More generally, we present several families of U(1) extensions of the standard model that include as special cases many of the Z' models discussed in the literature. Typically, the CDF and D0 experiments are expected to probe Z'-fermion couplings down to 0.1 for Z' masses in the 500 800 GeV range, which in various models would substantially improve the limits set by the LEP experiments.