We calculate the rate of production of $W^{\pm }+{\rm Y}$ and $Z^0+{\rm Y}$ in hadron colliders. We find the cross sections for $W^{\pm }+{\rm Y}$ and $Z^0+{\rm Y}$ to be roughly 0.45 pb and 0.15 pb at the Fermilab Tevatron and roughly 4 pb and 2 pb at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The dominant production mechanism involves the binding of a color-octet $b\overline{b}$ pair into a P-wave bottomonium state which subsequently decays into ${\rm Y}$. The purely leptonic decay modes of ${\rm Y},$ $W^{\pm }$, and $Z^0$ provide signatures with small backgrounds. These events may be observable in run II at the Tevatron, and they should certainly be observable at the LHC.

• Received 1 February 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.60.091501