Missing-pT-plus-jets signal for heavy leptons inpp¯collisions

Abstract

The most promising signal for the production of fourth-generation heavy leptons at pp¯ colliders in the weak subprocess dū→W→Lν${¯}_L$ with L→${\nu }_L$qq¯’ decay would be the appearance of events with large missing $p_T$ plus jets. This signal is reexamined, taking into account additional QCD gluon jets from dū→Wg production, using the full seven-particle matrix element square obtained by helicity-projection techniques. It is compared to standard physics backgrounds arising from W→τν¯, Z→νν¯, and heavy-quark decay processes at CERN and Fermilab energies; the backgrounds are comparable to the L signal but can in principle be separated from it in various ways.