Observation of monojet events and tentative interpretation

Abstract A data sample corresponding to almost two million hadronic Z decays collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP has been searched for monojet events. Three events were found, in agreement with the expectation from the process e + e − → γ * v v ¯ , with γ * → f f ¯ . Two events are hadronic, the third one being an e + e − pair. All monojet masses are in excess of 3 GeV/ c 2 , and two of the event have large transverse momenta: 18.5 and 20.3 GeV/ c . These kinematic characteristics are quite unlikely in the process e + e − → γ * v v ¯ . The probability of their occurence increases substantially when processes involving further Z or W exchanges are taken into account, but still remains at …