Signal and backgrounds for the single production of scalar and vector leptoquarks at the CERN LHC

We perform a detailed analysis of the potentiality of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to study the single production of leptoquarks via pp{r_arrow}e{sup {plus_minus}}q{r_arrow} leptoquark {r_arrow}e{sup {plus_minus}}q, with e{sup {plus_minus}} generated by the splitting of photons radiated by the protons. Working with the most general SU(2){sub L}{circle_times}U(1){sub 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{sup {plus_minus}} 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{endash}3 TeV, depending on their type, for Yukawa couplings of the order of the electromagnetic one. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}