Isolated tau leptons in events with large missing transverse momentum at HERA

A search for events containing isolated tau leptons and large missing transverse momentum, not originating from the tau decay, has been performed with the ZEUS detector at the electron-proton collider HERA, using 130 pb of integrated luminosity. A search was made for isolated tracks coming from hadronic tau decays. Observables based on the internal jet structure were exploited to discriminate between tau decays and quarkor gluon-induced jets. Three tau candidates were found, while 0.40 −0.13 were expected from Standard Model processes, such as charged current deep inelastic scattering and single W-boson production. To search for heavy-particle decays, a more restrictive selection was applied to isolate tau leptons produced together with a hadronic final state with high transverse momentum. Two candidate events survive, while 0.20 ± 0.05 events are expected from Standard Model processes. The ZEUS Collaboration S. Chekanov, M. Derrick, D. Krakauer, J.H. Loizides, S. Magill, S. Miglioranzi, B. Musgrave, J. Repond, R. Yoshida Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439-4815, USA n M.C.K. Mattingly Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49104-0380, USA P. Antonioli, G. Bari, M. Basile, L. Bellagamba, D. Boscherini, A. Bruni, G. Bruni, G. Cara Romeo, L. Cifarelli, F. Cindolo, A. Contin, M. Corradi, S. De Pasquale, P. Giusti, G. Iacobucci, A. Margotti, A. Montanari, R. Nania, F. Palmonari, A. Pesci, G. Sartorelli, A. Zichichi University and INFN Bologna, Bologna, Italy e G. Aghuzumtsyan, D. Bartsch, I. Brock, S. Goers, H. Hartmann, E. Hilger, P. Irrgang, H.P. Jakob, O. Kind, U. Meyer, E. Paul, J. Rautenberg, R. Renner, A. Stifutkin, J. Tandler, K.C. Voss, M. Wang, A. Weber Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany b D.S. Bailey, N.H. Brook, J.E. Cole, G.P. Heath, T. Namsoo, S. Robins, M. Wing H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom m M. Capua, A. Mastroberardino, M. Schioppa, G. Susinno Calabria University, Physics Department and INFN, Cosenza, Italy e J.Y. Kim, Y.K. Kim, J.H. Lee, I.T. Lim, M.Y. Pac Chonnam National University, Kwangju, Korea g A. Caldwell, M. Helbich, X. Liu, B. Mellado, Y. Ning, S. Paganis, Z. Ren, W.B. Schmidke, F. Sciulli Nevis Laboratories, Columbia University, Irvington on Hudson, New York 10027 o J. Chwastowski, A. Eskreys, J. Figiel, A. Galas, K. Olkiewicz, P. Stopa, L. Zawiejski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Cracow, Poland i L. Adamczyk, T. Bo ld, I. Grabowska-Bo ld, D. Kisielewska, A.M. Kowal, M. Kowal, T. Kowalski, M. Przybycień, L. Suszycki, D. Szuba, J. Szuba Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, AGH-University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland p A. Kotański, W. S lomiński Department of Physics, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland