Search for vectorlike leptons in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at s =13 TeV

Open Access

Abstract

A search for vectorlike leptons in multilepton final states is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 77.4 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016 and 2017. Events are categorized by the multiplicity of electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying τ leptons. The missing transverse momentum and the scalar sum of the lepton transverse momenta are used to distinguish the signal from background. The observed results are consistent with the expectations from the standard model hypothesis. The existence of a vectorlike lepton doublet, coupling to the third-generation standard model leptons in the mass range of 120-790 GeV, is excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the most stringent limits yet on the production of a vectorlike lepton doublet, coupling to the third-generation standard model leptons. ; Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie program and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract Nos. 675440, 752730, and 765710 (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the A.P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office; the Fonds pour la Formation `a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium); the F.R.S.-FNRS and FWO (Belgium) under the "Excellence of Science – EOS" – be.h project n. 30820817; the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, No. Z181100004218003; theMinistry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic; the Lend¨ulet ("Momentum") Program and the J´anos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the New National Excellence Program UNKP, the NKFIA research grants 123842, 123959, 124845, 124850, 125105, 128713, 128786, and 129058 (Hungary); the Council of Science and Industrial Research, India; the HOMING PLUS program of the Foundation for Polish Science, cofinanced from European Union, Regional Development Fund, the Mobility Plus program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the National Science Center (Poland), contracts Harmonia 2014/14/M/ST2/00428, Opus 2014/13/B/ST2/02543, 2014/15/B/ST2/03998, and 2015/19/B/ST2/02861, Sonatabis 2012/07/E/ST2/01406; the National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund; the Ministry of Science and Education, grant no. 3.2989.2017 (Russia); the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2015-0509 and the Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias; the Thalis and Aristeia programs cofinanced by EU-ESF and the Greek NSRF; the Rachadapisek Sompot Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University and the Chulalongkorn Academic into Its 2nd Century Project Advancement Project (Thailand); the Welch Foundation, contract C-1845; and the Weston Havens Foundation (USA).