The search for third-generation leptoquarks at CMS

Tuesday, 8 November 2022 at 11:15

The Standard Model has enjoyed many successes over its 50-year existence, but for theoretical and experimental reasons it is clearly not our final understanding of Nature. For example, experimental measurements of rare decays of B hadrons show a deviation from the flavor universality predicted by the SM. Leptoquarks (LQs) with preferential couplings to third-generation fermions offer a good explanation, and can be directly searched for in proton-proton collisions at detectors like ATLAS & CMS. 

This presentations discusses the recently preliminary results for a combined search for a LQ with tau leptons and b quarks signatures at CMS. The analysis considers single and pair production of scalar or vector LQs, as well as the novel nonresonant production of a pair of tau leptons through the t-channel exchange of a LQ. Upper limits are set on the LQ production cross section and coupling strength in the LQ mass range 0.5-2.3 TeV. Intriguingly, a significance up to 3.4 standard deviations above the standard model expectation is observed in the data for the nonresonant signal, depending on the assumed coupling and LQ mass.

Slides (PDF, 17 MB)