The quark and lepton sectors of the standard model (SM) are strikingly similar in terms of the number of particles and generations. This hints at a possible symmetry existing between the two sectors. Indeed, such a symmetry is part of many beyond- the-SM frameworks, namely Pati-Salam SU(4) and E6 superstring inspired theories. These models give rise to a new class of bosons called leptoquarks (LQ) that carry both baryon and lepton numbers – a signature of their couplings to quarks and leptons. They are fractionally charged, coloured particles and could be either scalar or vector. An LQ can decay either to a charged lepton and a quark (leading to a jet), or a neutrino that gives rise to large missing transverse energy and a jet. In this talk, we shall discuss about the results of a search for pair-produced 1st generation scalar LQs conducted at CMS using pp collision data at centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded during 2016.
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