Rare $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^−$ analyses with electrons

Abstract

Rare $b\to s\ell^+\ell^-$ decays are flavour-changing neutral-current processes that are forbidden at the lowest perturbative order in the Standard Model (SM). As a consequence, new particles in SM extensions can significantly affect the branching fractions of these decays and their angular distributions, as well as affect the coupling of the electroweak gauge bosons of the SM to leptons in a non-universal way. Tensions have been observed at the LHCb experiment, in particular when comparing $b\to s\mu^+\mu^-$ and $b\to se^+e^-$ decays. Recent results from the LHCb experiment in this area are presented, with special focus on the experimental techniques used to study decays with electrons in the final state.