Viability of a Novel Technique for Low-Mass Leptoquark Searches*

In the standard model of particle physics, the two types of matter particles, leptons and quarks, can not directly decay into each other. A leptoquark would allow such decays, unifying the matter particles. Current searches for leptoquarks focus on masses above about 200 GeV, to comply with trigger requirements at LHC experiments. However, it is possible to probe less explored lower mass regions via single leptoquark production, triggering on a single lepton produced with the leptoquark and targeting leptoquarks with high momentum. In this phenomenological study, I have verified that the resulting lepton and quark of a decaying leptoquark are in a close geometrical region such that they would be reconstructed as a single object. I have also verified that processes relying on the high leptoquark momentum and its low mass, between 50 and 200 GeV, result in significant cross sections for leptoquark-lepton-quark couplings between 0.5 and 2.5, thus offering a proof of concept for a feasibility study for the search of such particles in an unexplored mass range.