Leptons in the protons and implications for LHC phenomenology

Monday, 21 September 2020 at 11:15, in Y36 K08 - Campus Irchel

Processes commonly studied at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are
induced by quarks and gluons inside the protons of the LHC beams.
Photons and charged leptons can also appear as constituents in
ultrarelativistic hadron beams, and admit a description in terms of a
Parton Density Function (PDF). In particular, it is possible to target
lepton-induced processes at the LHC. Despite the fact the lepton
densities are extremely small, there are cases where lepton initiated
processes can be relevant, giving rise to rare Standard Model signatures
and to new production channels, that can enlarge the discovery potential
of New Physics at the LHC and future high energy colliders with hadrons
in the initial state.

I will discuss how the lepton densities of the proton can be precisely
determined using the so called LUX approach. Among the possible Standard
Model and beyond Standard Model applications, my focus will then be on a
novel search strategy for resonant single LeptoQuark (LQ) production
in the collisions of leptons and quarks at the LHC. For the case of
minimal first- and second-generation scalar LQs, I will show that, in
large parts of the parameter space, the obtained limits represent the
most stringent constraints to date on LQs of this type.