Discovery and identification of W bosons in eγ→vq+X

We examine the sensitivity of the process eγ→vq+X to W′ bosons which arise in various extensions of the standard model. We consider photon spectra from both the Weizsäcker-Williams process and from a backscattered laser. The process is found to be sensitive to IV masses up to several TeV, depending on the model, the center of mass energy, the integrated luminosity, and assumptions regarding systematic errors. If extra gauge bosons were discovered first in other experiments, the process could also be used to measure IV couplings. This measurement would provide information that could be used to unravel the underlying theory, complementary to measurements at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.