Constraining heavy Majorana neutrino masses using final states with two leptons, jets, and missing energy at the LHC

Abstract

Heavy Majorana neutrinos are hypothetical particles motivated mainly by the seesaw model, which attempts to explain the lightness of the Standard Model neutrinos. This study is the first to assess the feasibility of searching for heavy neutrinos via processes in which one heavy neutrino decays into another heavy neutrino. Final states with two leptons, missing energy, and at least two jets are analyzed in heavy neutrino and SM events, and a cutflow was formulated to optimize the signal-to-background ratio. This cutflow is expected to strengthen the constraints on heavy neutrino masses.