Enhancing Squark/Leptoquark Production by Increasing the HERA Beam Energies

TL;DR

Increasing the beam energies at HERA significantly boosts the production cross section for squarks and leptoquarks, extending the search range for these particles in high-energy positron-proton collisions.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that moderate increases in beam energies at HERA can substantially enhance the detection prospects for heavy squarks and leptoquarks.

Findings

Production cross section increases by a factor of 2-6 for certain masses.

Search range extends by about 40 GeV to masses of 270-280 GeV.

Event yields and background rates are provided for various beam energies.

Abstract

The cross section for production of R-parity violating squarks ($\tilde{q}$) or leptoquarks ($LQ$) with masses above 200 GeV by positron-proton scattering at HERA can be substantially increased by a moderate increase of the beam energies. If, for example, the positron energy is raised from 27.5 to 32.5 GeV and the proton energy from 820 to 1000 GeV, the $\tilde{q}/LQ$ production cross section for masses of 200 - 230 GeV increases by a factor of about 2-6 and the search range for $\tilde{q}/LQ$ is extended by about 40 GeV to masses of 270 - 280 GeV. In this report event yields are presented for beam energies in the range $E_e = 27.5-35 GeV$ and $E_p = 820-1100 GeV$. Also presented is the rate of background events expected from Standard Model neutral and charged current $e^{\pm}p$ scattering.