Bottom-quark fusion processes at the LHC for probing <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>Z</mml:mi><mml:mo>′</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math> models and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>B</mml:mi></mml:math>-meson decay anomalies

We investigate models of a heavy neutral gauge boson ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ coupling mostly to third generation quarks and second generation leptons. In this scenario, bottom quarks arising from gluon splitting can fuse into ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ allowing the LHC to probe it. In the generic framework presented, anomalies in $B$-meson decays reported by the LHCb experiment imply a flavor-violating $bs$ coupling of the featured ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ constraining the lowest possible production cross section. A novel approach searching for a ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}(\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\mu})$ in association with at least one bottom-tagged jet can probe regions of model parameter space existing analyses are not sensitive to.