Probing Lepton Flavor Violation in Meson Decays with LHC Data
In this letter, we use LHC data from the Drell-Yan processes $pp\to\ell_i\ell_j$ (with $i\neq j$) 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~$\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$) already provides competitive limits on $B(B\to πe τ)$ and $B(B\to πμτ)$ 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 $D^0\to eτ$ in the charm sector, and various semileptonic decays such as $B\to ρμτ$, $B_s\to K μτ$ and $B_s\toϕμτ$. Lastly, we discuss the validity of the EFT description of LHC data and the impact of loop corrections in our analysis.