We perform a detailed analysis of the potentiality of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to study the single production of leptoquarks via $p\overrightarrow{p}{e}^{\pm }\overrightarrow{q}$ leptoquark $\to e^{\pm }q,$ with $e^{\pm }$ generated by the splitting of photons radiated by the protons. Working with the most general $\mathrm{SU}{\mathrm{}\left(2\right)\mathrm{}}_L\otimes \mathrm{U}{\mathrm{}\left(1\right)\mathrm{}}_Y$ invariant effective Lagrangian for scalar and vector leptoquarks, we analyze in detail the leptoquark signals and backgrounds that lead to a final state containing an $e^{\pm }$ and a hard jet with approximately balanced transverse momenta. Our results indicate that the LHC will be able to discover leptoquarks with masses up to 2–3 TeV, depending on their type, for Yukawa couplings of the order of the electromagnetic one.

• Received 28 May 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.58.095001