The quark and lepton sectors of the standard model (SM) are strikingly similar in terms of the number
of particles and generations. This hints at a fundamental symmetry existing between the two sectors.
Indeed, such a symmetry is part of many beyond-the-SM theories such as composite models,
technicolor, grand unified SU(5), Pati-Salam SU(4) and E6 superstring-inspired theories. These
models give rise to a new class of bosons called leptoquarks that carry both baryon and lepton
numbers, a signature of their coupling to quarks and leptons. We perform a dedicated search for scalar leptoquarks using proton-proton collision data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were recorded by the CMS detector during the 2016 running of the LHC, and correspond to an integrated
luminosity of 35.9 fb-1