Search for heavy neutral leptons in decays of W bosons produced in 13 TeV pp collisions using prompt signatures in the ATLAS detector


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Zwalinski L., Zormpa O., Zorbas T., Zografos A., Zoch K., Zoccoli A., ...Daha Fazla

European Physical Journal C, cilt.86, sa.2, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 86 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2026
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-15191-w
  • Dergi Adı: European Physical Journal C
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Chemical Abstracts Core, Compendex, INSPEC, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals, Nature Index
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The existence of right-handed neutrinos with Majorana masses below the electroweak scale could help address the origins of neutrino masses, the matter–antimatter asymmetry, and dark matter. In this paper, leptonic decays of W bosons from 140 fb-1 of 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the LHC, reconstructed in the ATLAS experiment, are used to search for heavy neutral leptons produced through their mixing with muon or electron neutrinos in a scenario with lepton number violation. The search is conducted using prompt leptonic decay signatures. The considered final states require two same-charge leptons or three leptons, while vetoing three-lepton same-flavour topologies. No significant excess over the expected Standard Model backgrounds is found, leading to constraints on the heavy neutral lepton’s mixing with muon and electron neutrinos for heavy-neutral-lepton masses. The analysis excludes |Ue|2 values above 8×10-5 and |Uμ|2 values above 5.0×10-5 in the full mass range of 8–65 GeV. The strongest constraints are placed on heavy-neutral-lepton masses in the range 15–30 GeV of |Ue|2<1.1×10-5 and |Uμ|2<5×10-6.