Bounds on the Masses and Couplings of Leptoquarks from Leptonic Partial Widths of the Z

Abstract

The vertex corrections to the leptonic partial widths of the $Z$ induced by leptoquarks that couple leptons to the top quark are considered. We obtain stringent bounds on the parameter space of the masses and Yukawa couplings of these leptoquarks, using the latest information on the $Z \rightarrow l^+l^-$ decay widths measured at LEP. Leptoquarks coupling with electroweak strength to top quarks are constrained to be heavier than several hundred GeV, at 95$\%$ C.L. As a consequence, such leptoquarks cannot make a significant contribution to lepton asymmetries, $\tau$ polarisation asymmetries or $A_{LR}$.