Large Hadron Collider Run Research Articles

Neutrino rate predictions for FASER

The Forward Search Experiment (FASER) at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recently directly detected the first collider neutrinos. Neutrinos play an important role in all FASER analyses, either as signal or background, and it is therefore essential to understand the neutrino event rates. In this study, we update previous simulations and present prescriptions for theoretical predictions of neutrino fluxes and cross sections, together with their associated uncertainties. With these results, we discuss the potential for possible measurements that could be carried out in the coming years with the FASER neutrino data to be collected in LHC Run 3 and Run 4. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Searches for New High-Mass Resonances Decaying to Fermions at the LHC

Accelerator searches for new resonances have a long-standing history of discoveries that have driven advances in our understanding of nature. Since 2010, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has probed previously inaccessible energy scales, enabling searches for new heavy resonances predicted by a wide range of theories beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In particular, resonance decays into fermionic final states are often seen as golden channels since they provide a clear signal—typically a peak in the invariant mass of the decay products over a smoothly falling background distribution. This review summarizes the key concepts of the experimental searches for new resonances decaying to fermions, in the context of the BSM theories that motivate them, and presents the latest results of the ATLAS and CMS experiments, focusing on the complete LHC Run 2 dataset. Future prospects at the High-Luminosity LHC and potential future colliders are also surveyed.

Beam-induced backgrounds measured in the ATLAS detector during local gas injection into the LHC beam vacuum

Inelastic beam-gas collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), within a few hundred metres of the ATLAS experiment, are known to give the dominant contribution to beam backgrounds. These are monitored by ATLAS with a dedicated Beam Conditions Monitor (BCM) and with the rate of fake jets in the calorimeters. These two methods are complementary since the BCM probes backgrounds just around the beam pipe while fake jets are observed at radii of up to several metres. In order to quantify the correlation between the residual gas density in the LHC beam vacuum and the experimental backgrounds recorded by ATLAS, several dedicated tests were performed during LHC Run 2. Local pressure bumps, with a gas density several orders of magnitude higher than during normal operation, were introduced at different locations. The changes of beam-related backgrounds, seen in ATLAS, are correlated with the local pressure variation. In addition the rates of beam-gas events are estimated from the pressure measurements and pressure bump profiles obtained from calculations. Using these rates, the efficiency of the ATLAS beam background monitors to detect beam-gas events is derived as a function of distance from the interaction point. These efficiencies and characteristic distributions of fake jets from the beam backgrounds are found to be in good agreement with results of beam-gas simulations performed with the Fluka Monte Carlo programme.

LHC Upgrades in preparation of Run 3

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Long Shutdown 2 (2019–2021), following LHC Run 2, was primarily dedicated to the upgrade of the LHC Injectors but it included also a significant amount of activities aimed at consolidation of the LHC machine components, removal of known limitations and initial upgrades in view of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) to favour the intensity ramp-up during Run 3 (2022–2025). An overview of the major modifications to the accelerator and its systems is followed by a summary of the results of the superconducting magnet training campaign to increase the LHC operation energy beyond the maximum value of 6.5 TeV reached during Run 2. The LHC configuration and the scenarios for proton and ion operation for Run 3 are presented considering the expected performance of the upgraded LHC Injectors and the proton beam intensity limitations resulting from the heat load on the cryogenic system due to beam-induced electron cloud and impedance.

The FASER detector

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is an experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Such particles may be produced in the very forward direction of the LHC's high-energy collisions and then decay to visible particles inside the FASER detector, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, aligned with the beam collisions axis. FASER also includes a sub-detector, FASERν, designed to detect neutrinos produced in the LHC collisions and to study their properties. In this paper, each component of the FASER detector is described in detail, as well as the installation of the experiment system and its commissioning using cosmic-rays collected in September 2021 and during the LHC pilot beam test carried out in October 2021. FASER has successfully started taking LHC collision data in 2022, and will run throughout LHC Run 3.

Searching for a heavy neutral CP-even Higgs boson in the BLSSM at the LHC Run 3 and HL-LHC

The detection of a heavy neutral CP-even Higgs boson of the B-L\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$B-L$$\\end{document} Supersymmetric Standard Model (BLSSM), h′\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$h'$$\\end{document}, with mh′≃400GeV\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$m_{h'}\\simeq 400~\ ext {GeV}$$\\end{document}, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a center-of-mass energy of s=14TeV\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s}=14~\ ext {TeV}$$\\end{document}, is investigated. The following production and decay channels are considered: gg→h′→ZZ→4ℓ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$gg\\rightarrow h'\\rightarrow {ZZ}\\rightarrow 4\\ell $$\\end{document} and (with being the Missing Transverse Energy (MET)), where ℓ=e,μ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\ell =e,\\mu $$\\end{document}, with integrated luminosity Lint=300fb-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$L_{\ ext {int}}=300~{\ ext {fb}}^{-1}$$\\end{document} (Run 3). Furthermore, we also look into the di-Higgs channel gg→h′→hh→bb¯γγ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$gg\\rightarrow h'\\rightarrow {hh}\\rightarrow {b{\\bar{b}}\\gamma \\gamma }$$\\end{document} at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with an integrated luminosity of Lint=3000fb-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$L_{\ ext {int}}=3000~{\ ext {fb}}^{-1}$$\\end{document}. We demonstrate that promising signals with high signal-to-background statistical significance (S/B\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$S/\\sqrt{B}$$\\end{document}) can be obtained through the three aforementioned channels.

Searching for lepton flavor violation with the CMS experiment

Searches for Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) stand at the forefront of experimental particle physics research, offering a sensitive probe to many scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model. The high proton–proton collision energy and luminosity provided by the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the excellent CMS detector performance allow for an extensive program of LFV searches. This paper reviews a broad range of LFV searches conducted at the CMS experiment using data collected in LHC Run 2, including [Formula: see text] decays, Higgs boson decays, and top quark production and decays. In each analysis, the online and offline event selections, signal modeling, background suppression and estimation, and statistical interpretation are elucidated. These searches involve various final state particles in a large transverse momentum range, showcasing the capability of the CMS experiment in exploring fundamental questions in particle physics.

Probing the path-length dependence of parton energy loss via scaling properties in heavy ion collisions

The scaling property of large-p⊥ hadron suppression, RAA(p⊥), measured in heavy ion collisions at the relativistic heavy ion collider and at the large hadron collider (LHC) leads to the determination of the average parton energy loss ⟨ε⟩ in quark-gluon plasma produced in a variety of collision systems and centrality classes. Relating ⟨ε⟩ to the particle multiplicity and collision geometry allows for probing the dependence of parton energy loss on the path length L. We find that ⟨ε⟩∝Lβ with β=1.02−0.06+0.09, which is consistent with the perturbative quantum chromodynamics expectation of parton energy loss in a longitudinally expanding quark-gluon plasma. We then demonstrate that the azimuthal anisotropy coefficient divided by the collision eccentricity, v2/e, follows the same scaling property as RAA. This scaling is observed in data, which are reproduced by the model at large p⊥. Finally, a linear relationship between v2/e and the logarithmic derivative of RAA is found and confirmed in data, offering an additional way to probe the L dependence of parton energy loss using coming measurements from LHC run 3. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Direct bounds on Left-Right gauge boson masses at LHC Run 2

While the third run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is ongoing, the underlying theory that extends the Standard Model remains so far unknown. Left-Right Models (LRMs) introduce a new gauge sector, and can restore parity symmetry at high enough energies. If LRMs are indeed realized in nature, the mediators of the new weak force can be searched for in colliders via their direct production. We recast existing experimental limits from the LHC Run 2 and derive generic bounds on the masses of the heavy LRM gauge bosons. As a novelty, we discuss the dependence of the WR and ZR total width on the LRM scalar content, obtaining model-independent bounds within the specific realizations of the LRM scalar sectors analysed here. These bounds avoid the need to detail the spectrum of the scalar sector, and apply in the general case where no discrete symmetry is enforced. Moreover, we emphasize the impact on the WR production at LHC of general textures of the right-handed quark mixing matrix without manifest left-right symmetry. We find that the WR and ZR masses are constrained to lie above 2 TeV and 4 TeV, respectively.

Heavy Higgs boson searches at the LHC in light of a left-right symmetric model

We investigate a left-right symmetric model respecting SU(3)C⊗SU(2)L⊗U(1)L⊗SU(2)R⊗U(1)R local gauge symmetry. We study the interactions of the heavy neutral and charged scalars of this model along with their production at the hadron collider and their subsequent decays. We analyze the collider searches of two heavy scalars, one of them is charge neutral and another one is singly charged. In both the cases we consider their associated production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and finally concentrate only on the leptonic final states. We perform both cut-based and multivariate analysis using the boosted decision tree algorithm for 14 TeV as well as 27 TeV LHC run with 3000 fb−1 integrated luminosity. As expected, the multivariate analysis shows a better signal-background discrimination compared to the cut-based analysis. In this article, we show that a charged Higgs of mass 750 GeV and 1.2 TeV can be probed with 2.77σ (4.58σ) and 1.38σ (3.66σ) significance at 14 (27) TeV run of LHC. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

The CMS monitoring applications for LHC Run 3

Data taking at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN restarted in 2022. The CMS experiment relies on a distributed computing infrastructure based on WLCG (Worldwide LHC Computing Grid) to support the LHC Run 3 physics program. The CMS computing infrastructure is highly heterogeneous and relies on a set of centrally provided services, such as distributed workload management and data management, and computing resources hosted at almost 150 sites worldwide. Smooth data taking and processing requires all computing subsystems to be fully operational, and available computing and storage resources need to be continuously monitored. During the long shutdown between LHC Run 2 and Run 3, the CMS monitoring infrastructure has undergone major changes to increase the coverage of monitored applications and services, while becoming more sustainable and easier to operate and maintain. The used technologies are based on open-source solutions, either provided by the CERN IT department through the MONIT infrastructure, or managed by the CMS monitoring team. Monitoring applications for distributed workload management, submission infrastructure based on HTCondor, distributed data management, facilities have been ported from mostly custom-built applications to use common data flow and visualization services. Data are mostly stored in non-SQL databases and storage technologies such as ElasticSearch, VictoriaMetrics, Prometheus, InfluxDB and HDFS, and accessed either via programmatic APIs, Apache Spark or Sqoop jobs, or visualized preferentially using Grafana. Most CMS monitoring applications are deployed on Kubernetes clusters to minimize maintenance operations. In this contribution we present the full stack of CMS monitoring services and show how we leveraged the use of common technologies to cover a variety of monitoring applications and cope with the computing challenges of LHC Run 3.

The ALICE Service Work system

The "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" (ALICE), one of the four large experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), is responsible for studying the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma. In order to ensure the full success of ALICE operation and data taking during the Large Hadron Collider Runs 3 and 4, a list of tasks identified as Service Work is established and maintained. This concerns detector maintenance, operation, calibration, quality control, data processing and outreach, as well as coordination and managerial roles in ALICE. The ALICE Glance Service Work system is a tool developed by a cooperation between the ALICE Collaboration and several universities that serves as the link between the user interaction and thousands of database entries. This paper describes the development process of this system and its functionalities, which range from planning the entire year of work for hundreds of tasks to individually assigning these tasks to members of the collaboration.

Study of MAPS silicon detector prototypes for the ALICE Inner Tracking System upgrade

The ALICE experiment, which is located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, has planned an upgrade of the Inner Tracking System (ITS), called ITS3, which will be installed during the LHC Long Shutdown 3, in 2026–2028. The cornerstone of the upgrade is a new 65 nm CMOS pixel chip, produced using Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) technology and the stitching technology to extend the chip length to 26 cm. The produced chips will be bent and they will replace the three innermost layers of the existing detector with new ultra-light, truly cylindrical layers. The ITS3 will improve tracking performance, especially at low transverse momentum, thanks to better track impact-parameter resolution, improved by a factor two with respect to the present ITS in LHC Run 3. In addition, the detector will be closer to the interaction point and will have a much lower material budget, of 0.05% X0/layer. This proceedings paper presents the final configuration and structure of the ITS3, the challenges related to its design and construction, and the results of the current R&D program on the sensor design and characterization. Finally, it also reports the results of beam tests preformed at CERN, where an analog pixel test chip (APTS Source Follower) was investigated in terms of detection efficiency.

Performance of the reconstruction of large impact parameter tracks in the inner detector of ATLAS

Searches for long-lived particles (LLPs) are among the most promising avenues for discovering physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). However, displaced signatures are notoriously difficult to identify due to their ability to evade standard object reconstruction strategies. In particular, the ATLAS track reconstruction applies strict pointing requirements which limit sensitivity to charged particles originating far from the primary interaction point. To recover efficiency for LLPs decaying within the tracking detector volume, the ATLAS Collaboration employs a dedicated large-radius tracking (LRT) pass with loosened pointing requirements. During Run 2 of the LHC, the LRT implementation produced many incorrectly reconstructed tracks and was therefore only deployed in small subsets of events. In preparation for LHC Run 3, ATLAS has significantly improved both standard and large-radius track reconstruction performance, allowing for LRT to run in all events. This development greatly expands the potential phase-space of LLP searches and streamlines LLP analysis workflows. This paper will highlight the above achievement and report on the readiness of the ATLAS detector for track-based LLP searches in Run 3.

Big Data Analytics for the ATLAS EventIndex Project with Apache Spark

The ATLAS EventIndex was designed to provide a global event catalogue and limited event-level metadata for ATLAS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and their analysis groups and users during Run 2 (2015-2018) and has been running in production since. The LHC Run 3, started in 2022, has seen increased data-taking and simulation production rates, with which the current infrastructure would still cope but may be stretched to its limits by the end of Run 3. A new core storage service is being developed in HBase/Phoenix, and there is work in progress to provide at least the same functionality as the current one for increased data ingestion and search rates and with increasing volumes of stored data. In addition, new tools are being developed for solving the needed access cases within the new storage. This paper describes a new tool using Spark and implemented in Scala for accessing the big data quantities of the EventIndex project stored in HBase/Phoenix. With this tool, we can offer data discovery capabilities at different granularities, providing Spark Dataframes that can be used or refined within the same framework. Data analytic cases of the EventIndex project are implemented, like the search for duplicates of events from the same or different datasets. An algorithm and implementation for the calculation of overlap matrices of events across different datasets are presented. Our approach can be used by other higher-level tools and users, to ease access to the data in a performant and standard way using Spark abstractions. The provided tools decouple data access from the actual data schema, which makes it convenient to hide complexity and possible changes on the backed storage.

The ATLAS Readout System for LHC Runs 2 and 3

The ReadOut System (ROS) is a central part of the data acquisition (DAQ) system of the ATLAS Experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The system is responsible for receiving and buffering event data from all detector subsystems and serving these to the High Level Trigger (HLT) system via a 10 GbE network, discarding or transporting data onward once the trigger has completed its selection process. The ATLAS ROS was completely replaced during the 2013–2014 experimental shutdown in order to meet the demanding conditions expected during LHC Run 2 and Run 3 (2015–2025). The ROS consists of roughly one hundred Linux-based 2U-high rack-mounted servers equipped with PCIe I/O cards and 10 GbE interfaces. This paper documents the system requirements for LHC Runs 2 and 3 and the design choices taken to meet them. The results of performance measurements and the re-use of ROS technology for the development of data sources, test platforms for other systems, and another ATLAS DAQ system component, namely the Region of Interest Builder (RoIB), are also discussed. Finally performance results for Run 2 operations are presented before looking at the upgrade for Run 3.

Commissioning and first performances of the ALICE MID RPCs

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to study pp and Pb–Pb collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. ALICE is equipped with a Muon Spectrometer (MS) to study the heavy charmonia in pp and heavy ion collisions via their muonic decay. At first, in the LHC Run 1 and 2 the selection of interesting events for muon physics in the MS was performed with a dedicated Muon Trigger system based on Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) operated in maxi-avalanche mode. During the LHC Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), ALICE underwent a major upgrade of its apparatus in order to fully profit from the increased luminosity of Pb–Pb collisions (from 20 kHz in Run 2 to 50 kHz in Run 3). Many sub-systems of the ALICE experiment are now running in continuous readout (triggerless). In this context the Muon Trigger system became the Muon IDentifier (MID). In order to reduce the RPC ageing and to increase the rate capability, it was decided to use a new front-end electronics FEERIC with a pre-amplification stage to minimize the charge released per hit inside the gas gap. A description of the MID upgrades, together with the results and performances of the RPCs from the commissioning, is presented in this paper.

SND@LHC: A New Experiment in Neutrino Physics at the LHC

The SND@LHC detector experiment is located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), about 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point. The detector is designed to measure, for the first time ever, high-energy neutrinos produced at the LHC in the pseudorapidity region of 7.2<η<8.4, which is inaccessible to other LHC experiments. The detector comprises a hybrid system that incorporates multiple components. The detector includes a 830 kg target composed of tungsten plates arranged in alternating layers with nuclear emulsion and electronic trackers: this arrangement functions as an electromagnetic calorimeter. Following the electromagnetic calorimeter, there is a hadronic calorimeter and a muon identification system. The detector possesses the ability to differentiate interactions involving all three neutrino flavours, enabling investigations into the physics of heavy flavour production in the forward region. This research is particularly significant for future circular colliders and high-energy astrophysical neutrino experiments. Furthermore, the detector has the ability to search for the scattering of Feebly Interacting Particles. The detector started operating during the LHC Run 3, and it collected a total of ∼39 fb−1 in 2022. The detector aims to collect approximately 250 fb−1 in the whole of Run 3.

Rigid waist shift: A new method for local coupling corrections in the LHC interaction regions

Successful operation of large-scale particle accelerators depends on the precise correction of magnet field or alignment errors present in the machine. In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), transverse linear coupling has been shown to have a significant impact on the beam dynamics. However, current measurement methods are not sufficient for precise local coupling measurement at the interaction point. In this paper, an approach to determine interaction region local coupling corrections with a rigid waist shift based on correlated global variables such as the closest tune approach $|{C}^{\ensuremath{-}}|$ is presented. The validity of the method is demonstrated through simulations and experimental measurements taken during the LHC Run 3 commissioning in 2022, where determined corrections were applied and led to a measured luminosity increase of 9.7% and 3.5% at the ATLAS and CMS detectors, respectively.

Light lepton portal dark matter meets the LHC

We examine the sensitivity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to light lepton portal dark matter with its mass below 10 GeV. The model features an extra doublet scalar field and singlet Dirac dark matter, which have Yukawa interactions with left-handed leptons. To correctly produce the dark matter abundance via the thermal freeze-out, a large mass splitting among the extra scalars is required, thus providing a light neutral scalar below mathcal{O}(10)textrm{GeV} and heavy neutral and charged scalars at the electroweak scale. In this paper, we focus on the electroweak pair-production of the extra scalars with subsequent model-specific scalar decays and evaluate the current constraints with the LHC Run 2 data and the discovery potential at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). It turns out that a large part of the theoretically allowed parameter space can be tested at the HL-LHC by taking into account complementarity between slepton searches and mono-Z plus missing transverse energy search. We also discuss same-sign charged scalar production as a unique prediction of the model, and the implication of the collider searches in the thermal dark matter scenario.