Abstract

At the LHC, a TeV-scale leptoquark (LQ) that decays dominantly to a top quark (t) and a light charged lepton (` = e, µ) would form a resonance system of boosted-t + high-pT-`. We consider all possible vector LQ models within the Buchmüller-Rückl-Wyler classifications with the desired decay. We propose simple phenomenological Lagrangians that are suitable for bottom-up/experimental studies and, at the same time, can cover the relevant parameter spaces of these models. In this simplified framework, we study the pair and single production channels of vector LQs at the LHC. Interestingly, we find that, like the pair production, the cross sections of some single production processes also depend on the parameter κ that appears in the gluon-vector LQ coupling. We adopt a search strategy of selecting events with at least one boosted hadronic top quark and exactly two high-pT leptons of the same flavor and opposite sign. This combines events from the pair and single production processes and, therefore, can enhance the discovery potential beyond that of the pair-production-only searches. For 5σ discovery we find that vector LQs can be probed up to 2.55 TeV for 100% branching ratio in the t` decay mode and O(1) new couplings at the 14 TeV LHC with 3 ab−1 of integrated luminosity.

Abstract

The Standard Model (SM) when extended with a Leptoquark (LQ) and right handed neutrinos, can have interesting new implications for Higgs physics. We show that the sterile neutrinos can induce a significant boost to the down-type quark Yukawa interactions through a diagonal coupling associated with the quarks and a scalar LQ of electromagnetic charge 1/3. The relative change is much more pronounced in case of the first two generations of quarks as they have vanishingly small Yukawa couplings in the SM. The enhancement in the couplings would also lead to a non-negligible contribution of the quark fusion process to the production of the 125 GeV Higgs scalar in the SM, though the gluon fusion always dominates. However, this may not be true for a general scalar. As an example, we consider a scenario with a SM-gauge-singlet scalar φ where an O(1) coupling between φ and the LQ is allowed. The φqq¯ Yukawa couplings can only be generated radiatively through a loop of LQ and sterile neutrinos. Here, the quark fusion process can have significant cross section, specially for a light φ. It can even supersede the normally dominant gluon fusion process for a moderate to large value of the LQ mass. This model can be tested/constrained at the high luminosity run of the LHC through a potentially large branching fraction of the scalar to two-jets.

Abstract

Motivated by the RDð
Þ anomalies, we investigate an SO(10) grand unification scenario where a charge −1=3 scalar leptoquark (S1) remains as the only new physics candidate at the TeV scale. This leptoquark along with the Standard Model (SM) Higgs doublet originates from the same ten-dimensional real scalar multiplet in the SO(10) grand unification framework taking its mass close to the electroweak scale. We explicitly show how the gauge coupling unification is achieved with only one intermediate symmetrybreaking scale at which the Pati-Salam gauge group is broken into the SM group. We investigate the phenomenological implications of our scenario and show that an S1 with a specific Yukawa texture can explain the RDð
Þ anomalies. We perform a multiparameter scan considering the relevant flavor constraints on RDð
Þ , FLðD
Þ, PτðD
Þ and Rνν Kð
Þ as well as the constraint coming from the Z → ττ decay and the latest ττ resonance search data at the LHC. Our analysis shows that a single leptoquark solution to the observed RDð
Þ anomalies with S1 is still a viable solution.

Abstract

The Standard Model (SM), when extended with a leptoquark (LQ) and right-handed neutrinos, can have interesting new implications for Higgs physics. We show that sterile neutrinos can induce a boost to the down-type quark Yukawa interactions through a diagonal coupling associated with the quarks and a scalar LQ of electromagnetic charge 1/3. The relative change is moderately larger in the case of the first two generations of quarks, as they have vanishingly small Yukawa couplings in the SM. The enhancement in the couplings would also lead to a non-negligible contribution from the quark fusion process to the production of the 125 GeV Higgs scalar in the SM, though the gluon fusion always dominates. However, this may not be true for a general scalar. As an example, we consider a scenario with a SM-gauge-singlet scalar ϕ where an O (1) coupling between ϕ and the LQ is allowed. The ϕ q q Yukawa …

Abstract

Most of the popular explanations of the observed anomalies in the semileptonic B-meson decays involve TeV scale Leptoquarks (LQs). Among the various possible LQ models, two particular LQs—S1(3, 1, 1/3) and U1(3, 1, 2/3) seem to be most promising. Here, we use current LHC data to constrain the S1(3, 1, 1/3) and U1(3, 1, 2/3) parameter spaces relevant for the RD(∗) observables. We recast the latest ATLAS τ τ resonance search data to obtain new exclusion limits. For this purpose, we consider both resonant (pair and single productions) and non-resonant (t-channel LQ exchange) productions of these LQs at the LHC. For the limits, the most dominant contribution comes from the (destructive) interference of the nonresonant production with Standard Model backgrounds. The combined contribution from the pair and inclusive single production processes Mandal et al (JHEP, 07:028, 2015, [1]) is less prominent but non-negligible. The limits we get are independent and competitive to other known bounds. For both the models, we set limits on RD(∗) motivated couplings Mandal et al (Phys Rev D 99(5):055028, 2019, [2]), Bhaskar et al (Phys Rev D 104(3):035016, 2021, [3]).

Abstract

A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalar particles a 1 is performed under the hypothesis that one of the pseudoscalars decays to a pair of opposite sign muons and the other decays to b b‾. Such signatures are predicted in a number of extensions of the standard model (SM), including next-to-minimal supersymmetry and two-Higgs-doublet models with an additional scalar singlet. The results are based on a data set of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb− 1, accumulated with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No statistically significant excess is observed with respect to the SM backgrounds in the search region for pseudoscalar masses from 20 GeV to half of the Higgs boson mass. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the production cross section and branching …

Abstract

The LHC search strategies for leptoquarks that couple dominantly to a top quark are different than for the ones that couple mostly to the light quarks. We consider charge 1=3 (ϕ1) and 5=3 (ϕ5) scalar leptoquarks that can decay to a top quark and a charged lepton (tl) giving rise to a resonance system of a boosted top and a high-pT lepton. We introduce simple phenomenological models suitable for bottom-up studies and explicitly map them to all possible scalar leptoquark models within the Buchmüller-Rückl-Wyler classifications that can have the desired decays. We study pair and single productions of these leptoquarks. Contrary to the common perception, we find that the single production of top-philic leptoquarks ϕ ¼ fϕ1; ϕ5g in association with a lepton and jets could be significant for order one ϕtl coupling in certain scenarios. We propose a strategy of selecting events with at least one hadronic-top and two high-pT same flavor opposite sign leptons. This captures events from both pair and single productions. Our strategy can significantly enhance the LHC discovery potential especially in the high-mass region where single productions become more prominent. Our estimation shows that a scalar leptoquark as heavy as ∼1.7 TeV can be discovered at the 14 TeV LHC with 3 ab−1 of integrated luminosity in the tll þ X channel for 100% branching ratio in the ϕ → tl decay mode. However, in some scenarios, the discovery reach can increase beyond 2 TeV even though the branching ratio comes down to about 50%

Abstract

Motivated by the persistent anomalies in the semileptonic B-meson decays, we investigate the competency of LHC data to constrain the RDðÞ -favored parameter space in a charge −1=3 scalar leptoquark (S1) model. We consider some scenarios with one large free coupling to accommodate the RDðÞ anomalies. As a result, some of them dominantly yield nonresonant ττ and τν events at the LHC through the t-channel S1 exchange. So far, no experiment has searched for leptoquarks using these signatures and the relevant resonant leptoquark searches are yet to put any strong exclusion limit on the parameter space. We recast the latest ττ and τν resonance search data to obtain new exclusion limits. The nonresonant processes strongly interfere (destructively in our case) with the Standard Model background and play the determining role in setting the exclusion limits. To obtain precise limits, we include non-negligible effects coming from the subdominant (resonant) pair and inclusive single leptoquark productions systematically in our analysis. To deal with large destructive interference, we make use of the transverse mass distributions from the experiments in our statistical analysis. In addition, we also recast the relevant direct search results to obtain the most stringent collider bounds on these scenarios to date. These are independent bounds and are competitive to other known bounds. Finally, we indicate how one can adopt these bounds to a wide class of models with S1 that are proposed to accommodate the RDðÞ anomalies.

Abstract

We compute the top quark threshold contributions to the γγ production at the LHC. They appear when the invariant mass of the photon pair, Mγ γ just exceeds two times the mass of the top quark and induce some feature in the Mγ γ distribution. We determine the magnitude of this threshold effect and characterize this feature with a simple empirical fitting function to show that it is possible to observe this effect at the LHC in future. We also explore some possible improvements that may enhance its significance.

Abstract

Quark-lepton compositeness is a well-known beyond the Standard Model (SM) scenario with heavy exotic particles like leptoquarks (LQs) and leptogluons (LGs) etc. These particles can couple to leptons and jets simultaneously. In this letter, we use the recent CMS scalar LQ search data in the e e j j and eej channels to probe this scenario. We recast the data in terms of a color octet partner of the SM electron (or a first generation spin-1/2 LG) that couples to an electron and a gluon via a dimension five operator suppressed by the quark–lepton compositeness scale (Λ). By combining different production processes of the color octet electron (e 8) at the LHC, we use the CMS 8 TeV data to obtain a simultaneous bound on Λ and the mass of the e 8 (M e 8). We also study the reach of the 13 TeV LHC to discover the e 8 and interpret the required luminosity in terms of M e 8 and Λ.