Probing lepton flavor violation in meson decays with LHC data

Abstract

Abstract In this letter, we use LHC data from the Drell–Yan processes $$pp\rightarrow \ell _i\ell _j$$ p p → ℓ i ℓ j (with $$i\ne j$$ i ≠ j ) to derive model-independent upper limits on lepton-flavor-violating meson decays. Our analysis is based on an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach and it does not require a specific assumption regarding the basis of effective operators. We find that current LHC data (140 $$\textrm{fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 ) already provides competitive limits on $${\mathcal {B}}(B\rightarrow \pi e \tau )$$ B ( B → π e τ ) and $${\mathcal {B}}(B\rightarrow \pi \mu \tau )$$ B ( B → π μ τ ) with respect to the ones obtained through experimental searches at the B-factories. Moreover, we derive upper limits on several decays that have not been searched for experimentally yet, such as $$D^0\rightarrow e\tau $$ D 0 → e τ in the charm sector, and various semileptonic decays such as $$B\rightarrow \rho \mu \tau $$ B → ρ μ τ , $$B_s\rightarrow K \mu \tau $$ B s → K μ τ and $$B_s\rightarrow \phi \mu \tau $$ B s → ϕ μ τ . Lastly, we discuss the validity of the EFT description of LHC data and the impact of loop corrections in our analysis.