Search for pair-produced leptoquarks in e+e- interactions at √(s)≅183 GeV

A search for pair-produced leptoquarks has been performed using a sample of e+e- collision events collected by the OPAL detector at LEP at e+e- centre-of-mass energies of about 183 GeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 55.9 pb-1. The leptoquarks were assumed to be produced via couplings to the photon and the Z0 and then to decay within a single fermion generation. No evidence for contributions from leptoquark pair production processes was observed. Lower limits on scalar and vector leptoquark masses are obtained. The existing limits are improved in the region of large decay branching ratio to quark-neutrino. (orig.)