Probing lepton flavor violation in meson decays with LHC data

In this letter, we use LHC data from the Drell–Yan processes p p → ℓ i ℓ j (with i ≠ 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 fb - 1 ) already provides competitive limits on B ( B → π e τ ) and B ( B → π μ τ ) 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 → e τ in the charm sector, and various semileptonic decays such as B → ρ μ τ , B s → K μ τ and B s → ϕ μ τ . Lastly, we discuss the validity of the EFT description of LHC data and the impact of loop corrections in our analysis.