SIGNAL AND BACKGROUNDS FOR THE SINGLE PRODUCTION OF SCALAR AND VECTORLEPTOQUARKS AT THE CERN LHC - ART. NO. 095001

We perform a detailed analysis of the potentiality of the CERN Large H adron Collider to study the single production of leptoquarks via pp--> e(+/-)q--> leptoquark --> e(+/-)q, with e(+/-) generated by the splitt ing of photons radiated by the protons. Working with the most general SU(2)(L)xU(1)(gamma) invariant effective Lagrangian for scalar and vec tor leptoquarks, we analyze in detail the leptoquark signals and backg rounds that lead to a final state containing an e(+/-) and a hard jet with approximately balanced transverse momenta. Our results indicate t hat the LHC will be able to discover leptoquarks with masses up to 2-3 TeV, depending on their type, for Yukawa couplings of the order of th e electromagnetic one. [S0556-2821(98)08219-8].