from CERN

The hunt for leptoquarks is on

Recent results from CMS explore third-generation leptoquarks: hypothetical
particles that combine the properties of leptons and quarks

19 SEPTEMBER, 2018

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By Achintya Rao <https://home.cern/authors/achintya-rao>
[image: A CMS collision event]

A collision event recorded by CMS at the start of the data-taking run of
2018. CMS sifts through such collisions up to 40 million times per second
looking for signs of hypothetical particles like leptoquarks (Image: Thomas
McCauley/Tai Sakuma/CMS/CERN)

Matter is made of elementary particles, and the Standard Model of particle
physics <https://home.cern/about/physics/standard-model> states that these
particles occur in two families: leptons (such as electrons and neutrinos)
and quarks (which make up protons and neutrons). Under the Standard Model,
these two families are totally distinct, with different electric charges
and quantum numbers, but have the same number of generations (see image
below).

However, some theories that go beyond the Standard Model, including certain
“grand unified theories”, predict that leptons and quarks merge at high
energies to become leptoquarks. These leptoquarks are proposed in theories
attempting to unify the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces.

Such “unifications” are not unusual in physics. Electricity and magnetism
were famously unified in the 19th century into a single force known as
electromagnetism, via Maxwell’s elegant mathematical formulae. In the case
of leptoquarks, these hybrid particles are thought to have the properties
of both leptons and quarks, as well as the same number of generations. This
would not only allow them to “split” into the two types of particles but
would also allow leptons to change into quarks and vice versa. Indeed,
anomalies detected by the LHCb experiment
<https://home.cern/about/experiments/lhcb> as well as by Belle
<http://belle.kek.jp/> and Babar
<http://www-public.slac.stanford.edu/babar/> in measurements of the
properties of B mesons could be also explained by the existence of these
hypothesised particles.

[image: An image showing family of quarks and leptons]
The Standard Model of particle physics divides elementary particles of
matter into separate families: leptons and quarks. Each family consists of
six particles, which are related in pairs, or “generations”. The lightest
and most stable particles make up the first generation, whereas the heavier
and less stable particles belong to the second and third generations. The
six leptons are arranged in three generations – the “electron” and the
“electron neutrino”, the “muon” and the “muon neutrino”, and the “tau” and
the “tau neutrino”.The six quarks are similarly paired in three generations
– the “up quark” and the “down quark” form the first generation, followed
by the “charm quark” and “strange quark”, then the “top quark” and “bottom
(or beauty) quark”.  (Image: Daniel Dominguez/CERN)

If leptoquarks exist, they would be very heavy and quickly transform, or
“decay”, into more stable leptons or quarks. Previous experiments at the SPS
<https://home.cern/about/accelerators/super-proton-synchrotron> and LEP
<https://home.cern/about/accelerators/large-electron-positron-collider> at
CERN, HERA at DESY and the Tevatron at Fermilab have looked at decays to
first- and second-generation particles. Searches for third-generation
leptoquarks (LQ3) were first performed at the Tevatron, and are now being
explored at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
<https://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider>.

Since leptoquarks would transform into a lepton and a quark, LHC searchers
look for telltale signatures in the distributions of these “decay
products”. In the case of third-generation leptoquarks, the lepton could be
a tau or a tau neutrino while the quark could be a top or bottom.

In a recent paper <https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.02864>, using data collected
in 2016 at a collision energy of 13 TeV, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)
collaboration <https://home.cern/about/experiments/cms> at the LHC
presented the results of searches for third-generation leptoquarks, where
every LQ3 produced in the collisions initially transformed into a tau-top
pair.

Because colliders produce particles and antiparticles at the same time, CMS
specifically searched for the presence of leptoquark-antileptoquark pairs
in collision events containing the remnants of a top quark, an antitop
quark, a tau lepton and an antitau lepton. Further, because leptoquarks
have never been seen before and their properties remain a mystery,
physicists rely on sophisticated calculations based on known parameters to
look for them. These parameters include the energy of the collisions and
expected background levels, constrained by the possible values for the mass
and spin of the hypothetical particle. Through these calculations, the
scientists can estimate how many leptoquarks might have been produced in a
particular data set of proton-proton collisions and how many might have
been transformed into the end products their detectors can look for.

“Leptoquarks have become one of the most tantalising ideas for extending
our calculations, as they make it possible to explain several observed
anomalies. At the LHC we are making every effort to either prove or exclude
their existence
<https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=1&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=leptoquark&terms-0-field=title&classification-physics=y&classification-physics_archives=hep-ex&date-filter_by=all_dates&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=50&order=-announced_date_first>,”
says Roman Kogler, a physicist on CMS who worked on this search.

After sifting through collision events looking for specific
characteristics, CMS saw no excess in the data that might point to the
existence of third-generation leptoquarks. The scientists were therefore
able to conclude that any LQ3 that transform exclusively to a top-tau pair
would need to be at least 900 GeV in mass, or around five times heavier
than the top quark, the heaviest particle we have observed.

The limits placed by CMS on the mass of third-generation leptoquarks are
the tightest so far. CMS has also searched for third-generation leptoquarks
that transform into a tau lepton and a bottom quark, concluding that such
leptoquarks would need to be at least 740 GeV in mass
<https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.03472>. However, it is important to note that
this result comes from the examination of only a fraction of LHC data at 13
TeV, from 2016. Further searches from CMS and ATLAS
<https://home.cern/about/experiments/atlas> that take into account data
from 2017 as well as the forthcoming run of 2018 will ensure that the LHC
can continue to test theories about the fundamental nature of our universe.

*See also “CMS searches for third-generation leptoquarks
<https://cerncourier.com/cms-searches-for-third-generation-leptoquarks/>”
in the *CERN Courier*’s April 2018 issue**.*
lepton <https://home.cern/tags/lepton>quark <https://home.cern/tags/quark>
CMS <https://home.cern/tags/cms>

On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 1:51 PM [email protected] <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Leptoquark—It carries information.  That’s a new idea for me.
>
>
>
> Is this just more SM fudgers making more fudge?  😊 I would hope there is
> a model for how these imaginary particles carry the information to their
> inter generational clients—other imaginary particles.
>
>
>
> Bob Cook
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> *From: *Axil Axil <[email protected]>
> *Sent: *Thursday, February 6, 2020 12:40 AM
> *To: *vortex-l <[email protected]>
> *Subject: *Re: [Vo]:Superconducting Metal Hydride
>
>
>
> This particle is believed to have existed at the very beginning of the
> universe,
>
> See
> Leptoquark
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptoquark
>
> Leptoquarks are hypothetical particles that would carry information
> between a generation of quarks and a generation of leptons, thus allowing
> quarks and leptons to interact.
>
> Current best limits on leptoquarks are set by LHC, which has been
> searching for the first, second, and third generation of leptoquarks and
> some mixed-generation leptoquarks.
>
> Leptoquarks could explain the reason for the three generations of matter.
> Furthermore, leptoquarks could explain why the same number of quarks and
> leptons exist and many other similarities between the quark and the lepton
> sectors. At high energies, at which leptons (which are not affected by the
> strong force) and quarks (that cannot be separately observed because of the
> strong force) become one;
>
> This particle could be an actor during the transmutation process in ultra
> dense matter
> Holmlid could prove the existence of Leptoquarks.
>
> Also
>
> X and Y bosons
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_and_Y_bosons
>
> In particle physics, the X and Y bosons (sometimes collectively called "X
> bosons"[1]:437) are hypothetical elementary particles analogous to the W
> and Z bosons,
>
> The EVO may be producing these industrial strength "Intermediate Vector
> Bosons"
>
> The X and Y bosons couple quarks to leptons, allowing violation of the
> conservation of baryon number, and thus permitting proton decay.<
>
> Since Holmlid is seeing proton decay, he may be producing these powerful
> IVBs
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 10:43 AM Jones Beene <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Nicholas Palmer wrote:
>
>
>
> This brings to mind the 'Cincinnati group' ... The late lamented Chris
> Tinsley showed me a tile which he had burned right through himself using
> the CCs 'secret sauce' which he told me contained zirconium... coincidence?
>
>
>
>
>
> Not only the zirconium turns up unexpectedly --- Lochak et al mention
> vanadium as being especially active in LENR...
>
>
>
> Hmm... yet another coincidence?
>
>
>
> (the Oak Ridge results were with a hydride of zirconium and vanadium)
>
>
>
>
> https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/db63/d5e889be09ad59c4cabc92354ee692e9876e.pdf
>
>
>
>
>

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