Search For Long-lived Particles Research Articles

Search for long-lived particles decaying to leptons with large impact parameter in proton\u2013proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13,text {Te}text {V}

A search for new long-lived particles decaying to leptons using proton–proton collision data produced by the CERN LHC at sqrt{s}=13,text {Te}text {V} is presented. Events are selected with two leptons (an electron and a muon, two electrons, or two muons) that both have transverse impact parameter values between 0.01 and 10,text {cm} and are not required to form a common vertex. Data used for the analysis were collected with the CMS detector in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 118 (113),text {fb}^{-1} in the {{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} {{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} channel ({{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} {upmu } and {upmu } {upmu } channels). The search is designed to be sensitive to a wide range of models with displaced {{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} {upmu } , {{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} {{mathrm{e}}_{mathrm{}}^{mathrm{}}} , and {upmu } {upmu } final states. The results constrain several well-motivated models involving new long-lived particles that decay to displaced leptons. For some areas of the available phase space, these are the most stringent constraints to date.

Early matter domination from long-lived particles in the visible sector

We show that a nonstandard cosmological history with a period of early matter domination driven by a sub-TeV visible-sector particle can arise rather naturally. This scenario involves a long-lived standard model (SM) singlet that acquires a thermal abundance at high temperatures from decays and inverse decays of a parent particle with SM charge(s), and subsequently dominates the energy density of the Universe as a frozen species. Entropy generation at the end of early matter domination dilutes the abundance of dangerous relics (such as gravitinos) by a factor as large as ${10}^{4}$. The scenario can accommodate the correct dark matter relic abundance for cases with $⟨{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{ann}}v{⟩}_{\mathrm{f}}\ensuremath{\lessgtr}3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}26}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}\text{ }{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. More importantly, the allowed parameter space can be directly probed by proposed searches for neutral long-lived particles at the energy frontier, allowing us to use particle physics experiments to reconstruct the cosmological history just prior to big bang nucleosynthesis.

Searching for Long-Lived BSM Particles at the LHC

Searching for Long-Lived BSM Particles at the LHC

Search for neutral long-lived particles in pp collisions at root $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV that decay into displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS calorimeter

Search for neutral long-lived particles in pp collisions at root $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV that decay into displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS calorimeter

A theory of dark pions

We present a complete model of a dark QCD sector with light dark pions, broadly motivated by hidden naturalness arguments. The dark quarks couple to the Standard Model via irrelevant Z- and Higgs-portal operators, which encode the low-energy effects of TeV-scale fermions interacting through Yukawa couplings with the Higgs field. The dark pions, depending on their CP properties, behave as either composite axion-like particles (ALPs) mixing with the Z or scalars mixing with the Higgs. The dark pion lifetimes fall naturally in the most interesting region for present and proposed searches for long-lived particles, at the LHC and beyond. This is demonstrated by studying in detail three benchmark scenarios for the symmetries and structure of the theory. Within a coherent framework, we analyze and compare the GeV-scale signatures of flavor-changing meson decays to dark pions, the weak-scale decays of Z and Higgs bosons to hidden hadrons, and the TeV-scale signals of the ultraviolet theory. New constraints are derived from B decays at CMS and from Z-initiated dark showers at LHCb, focusing on the displaced dimuon signature. We also emphasize the strong potential sensitivity of ATLAS and CMS to dark shower signals with large multiplicities and long lifetimes of the dark pions. As a key part of our phenomenological study, we perform a new data-driven calculation of the decays of a light ALP to exclusive hadronic Standard Model final states. The results are provided in a general form, applicable to any model with arbitrary flavor-diagonal couplings of the ALP to fermions.

Search for Long-Lived Particles Decaying in the CMS End Cap Muon Detectors in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

A search for long-lived particles (LLPs) produced in decays of standard model (SM) Higgs bosons is presented. The data sample consists of 137 fb^{-1} of proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV, recorded at the LHC in 2016-2018. A novel technique is employed to reconstruct decays of LLPs in the end cap muon detectors. The search is sensitive to a broad range of LLP decay modes and to masses as low as a few GeV. No excess of events above the SM background is observed. The most stringent limits to date on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to LLPs subsequently decaying to quarks and τ^{+}τ^{-} are found for proper decay lengths greater than 6, 20, and 40m, for LLP masses of 7, 15, and 40GeV, respectively.

The REINFORCE citizen-science project and the search for new long-lived particles at the LHC

The REINFORCE project engages and supports citizens to cooperate with researchers and actively contribute to the development of new knowledge for the needs of science and society. The overall aim is to bridge the gap between them, and reinforce society’s science capital. Within this context, the demonstrator titled “New Particle Search at CERN” will engage citizen-scientists in searches for new elementary particles produced in the high-energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC. To make this possible, the demonstrator adopts a three-stage architecture. The first two stages use simulated data from the ATLAS detector to train citizens, but also to allow for a quantitative assessment of their performance and a comparison with machine learning algorithms. The third stage, on the other hand, uses real data from the ATLAS Open-Data subset, providing two research paths: (a) study of Higgs boson decays to two photons, one of which could be converted to an electron-positron pair by interaction with detector material, and (b) search for yet undiscovered long-lived particles predicted by certain theories Beyond-the-Standard-Model.

R-parity violation axiogenesis

We show that the rotation of the QCD axion field, aided by B−L violation from supersymmetric R-parity violating couplings, can yield the observed baryon abundance. Strong sphaleron processes transfer the angular momentum of the axion field into a quark chiral asymmetry, which R-parity violating couplings convert to the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We focus on the case of dimensionless R-parity violating couplings with textures motivated by grand unified theories and comment on more general scenarios. The axion decay constant and mass spectrum of supersymmetric particles are constrained by Big Bang nucleosynthesis, proton decay from the R-parity violation, and successful thermalization of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking field. Axion dark matter may be produced by the axion rotation via the kinetic misalignment mechanism for axion decay constants below 1010 GeV, or by the conventional misalignment mechanism for 1011-12 GeV. The viable parameter region can be probed by proton decay and axion searches. This scenario may also have connections with collider experiments, including searches for long-lived particles, and observations of gravitational waves.

Constraining electroweak and strongly charged long-lived particles with CheckMATE

Long-lived particles have become a new frontier in the exploration of physics beyond the Standard Model. In this paper, we present the implementation of four types of long-lived particle searches, viz. displaced leptons, disappearing track, displaced vertex with either muons or with missing transverse energy, and heavy charged tracks. These four categories cover the signatures of a large range of physics models. We illustrate their potential for exclusion and discuss their mutual overlaps in mass-lifetime space for two simple phenomenological models involving either a U(1)-charged or a coloured scalar.

Multi-track displaced vertices at B-factories

We propose a program at B-factories of inclusive, multi-track displaced vertex searches, which are expected to be low background and give excellent sensitivity to non-minimal hidden sectors. Multi-particle hidden sectors often include long-lived particles (LLPs) which result from approximate symmetries, and we classify the possible decays of GeV-scale LLPs in an effective field theory framework. Considering several LLP production modes, including dark photons and dark Higgs bosons, we study the sensitivity of LLP searches with different number of displaced vertices per event and track requirements per displaced vertex, showing that inclusive searches can have sensitivity to a large range of hidden sector models that are otherwise unconstrained by current or planned searches.

A search for the decays of stopped long-lived particles at sqrt{mathrm{s}} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for long-lived particles, which have come to rest within the ATLAS detector, is presented. The subsequent decays of these particles can produce high-momentum jets, resulting in large out-of-time energy deposits in the ATLAS calorimeters. These de- cays are detected using data collected during periods in the LHC bunch structure when collisions are absent. The analysed dataset is composed of events from proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt{s} = 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS experiment during 2017 and 2018. The dataset used for this search corresponds to a total live time of 579 hours. The results of this search are used to derive lower limits on the mass of gluino R-hadrons, assuming a branching fraction mathcal{B}left(overset{sim }{g}to qoverline{q}{chi}_1^0right) = 100%, with masses of up to 1.4 TeV excluded for gluino lifetimes of 10−5 to 103 s.

Search for long-lived particles decaying to e ^pm mu ^mp nu

Long-lived particles decaying to {e ^pm } {mu ^mp } {nu } , with masses between 7 and 50 ,text {GeV/}c^2 and lifetimes between 2 and 50 ,text {ps} , are searched for by looking at displaced vertices containing electrons and muons of opposite charges. The search is performed using 5.4 ,text {fb} ^{-1} of p p collisions collected with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt{s} = 13 ,text {TeV} . Three mechanisms of production of long-lived particles are considered: the direct pair production from quark interactions, the pair production from the decay of a Standard-Model-like Higgs boson with a mass of 125 ,text {GeV/}c^2 , and the charged current production from an on-shell W boson with an additional lepton. No evidence of these long-lived states is obtained and upper limits on the production cross-section times branching fraction are set on the different production modes.

Enhancing sensitivities to long-lived particles with high granularity calorimeters at the LHC

The search for long-lived particles (LLP) is an exciting physics opportunity in the upcoming runs of the Large Hadron Collider. In this paper, we focus on a new search strategy of using the High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL), part of the upgrade of the CMS detector, in such searches. In particular, we demonstrate that the high granularity of the calorimeter allows us to see “shower tracks” in the calorimeter, and can play a crucial role in identifying the signal and suppressing the background. We study the potential reach of the HGCAL using a signal model in which the Standard Model Higgs boson decays into a pair of LLPs, h → XX. After carefully estimating the Standard Model QCD and the misreconstructed fake-track backgrounds, we give the projected reach for both an existing vector boson fusion trigger and a novel displaced-track-based trigger. Our results show that the best reach for the Higgs decay branching ratio, BR(h → XX), in the vector boson fusion channel is about mathcal{O} (10−4) with lifetime cτX ∼ 0.1–1 meters, while for the gluon gluon fusion channel it is about mathcal{O} (10−5–10−6) for similar lifetimes. For longer lifetime cτX ∼ 103 meters, our search could probe BR(h → XX) down to a few ×10−4(10−2) in the gluon gluon fusion (vector boson fusion) channels, respectively. In comparison with these previous searches, our new search shows enhanced sensitivity in complementary regions of the LLP parameter space. We also comment on many improvements can be implemented to further improve our proposed search.

Searching for long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider

Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton–proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments—as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER—to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the high-luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity ‘dark showers’, highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.

Search for long-lived, massive particles in events with a displaced vertex and a muon with large impact parameter in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for long-lived particles decaying into hadrons and at least one muon is presented. The analysis selects events that pass a muon or missing-transverse-momentum trigger and contain a displaced muon track and a displaced vertex. The analyzed dataset of proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV was collected with the ATLAS detector and corresponds to 136 fb−1. The search employs dedicated reconstruction techniques that significantly increase the sensitivity to long-lived particle decays that occur in the ATLAS inner detector. Background estimates for Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are compatible with those expected from background processes. The results are presented as limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model, and interpreted as exclusion limits in scenarios with pair production of long-lived top squarks that decay via a small R-parity-violating coupling into a quark and a muon. Top squarks with masses up to 1.7 TeV are excluded for a lifetime of 0.1 ns, and masses below 1.3 TeV are excluded for lifetimes between 0.01 ns and 30 ns.1 MoreReceived 27 March 2020Accepted 1 July 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.032006Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.© 2020 CERN, for the ATLAS CollaborationPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasSupersymmetric modelsParticles & Fields

Triggering long-lived particles in HL-LHC and the challenges in the first stage of the trigger system

Triggering long-lived particles (LLPs) at the first stage of the trigger system is very crucial in LLP searches to ensure that we do not miss them at the very beginning. The future High Luminosity runs of the Large Hadron Collider will have increased number of pile-up events per bunch crossing. There will be major upgrades in hardware, firmware and software sides, like tracking at level-1 (L1). The L1 trigger menu will also be modified to cope with pile-up and maintain the sensitivity to physics processes. In our study we found that the usual level-1 triggers, mostly meant for triggering prompt particles, will not be very efficient for LLP searches in the 140 pile-up environment of HL-LHC, thus pointing to the need to include dedicated L1 triggers in the menu for LLPs. We consider the decay of the LLP into jets and develop dedicated jet triggers using the track information at L1 to select LLP events. We show in our work that these triggers give promising results in identifying LLP events with moderate trigger rates.

Looking forward to test the KOTO anomaly with FASER

The search for light and long-lived particles at the LHC will be intensified in the upcoming years with a prominent role of the new FASER experiment. In this study, we discuss how FASER could independently probe such scenarios relevant for new physics searches at kaon factories. We put an emphasis on the proposed explanations for the recently observed three anomalous events in the KOTO experiment. The baseline of FASER precisely corresponds to the proposed lifetime solution to the anomaly that avoids the NA62 bounds on charged kaons. As a result, the experiment can start constraining relevant models within the first few weeks of its operation. In some cases, it can confirm a possible discovery with up to 10000 spectacular high-energy events in FASER during LHC Run 3. Further complementarities between FASER and kaon factories, which employ FASER capability to study di-photon signatures, are illustrated for the model with axion-like particles dominantly coupled to $SU(2)_W$ gauge bosons.

Light dark sectors through the Fermion portal

Pairs of Standard Model fermions form dimension-3 singlet operators that can couple to new dark sector states. This “fermion portal” is to be contrasted with the lower-dimensional Higgs, vector and neutrino singlet portals. We characterise its distinct phenomenology and place effective field theory bounds on this framework, focusing on the case of fermion portals to a pair of light dark sector fermions. We obtain current and projected limits on the dimension-6 effective operator scale from a variety of meson decay experiments, missing energy and long-lived particle searches at colliders, as well as astrophysical and cosmological bounds. The DarkEFT public code is made available for recasting these limits, which we illustrate with various examples including an integrated- out heavy dark photon.

The second Higgs at the lifetime frontier

We assess the current coverage and the future discovery potential of LHC searches for heavy Higgs bosons decaying into long-lived particles (LLPs), focusing primarily on the production of pairs of LLPs with hadronic final states. These signatures are generic in dark sectors where a heavy scalar decays into pairs of lighter states which subsequently mix with the Standard Model Higgs. We show that a handful of existing analyses provide broad coverage of LLP decay lengths ranging from millimeters to tens of meters, and explore the complementarity between searches for displaced and prompt final states in several simplified models. For both heavy singlet and heavy doublet scalars, LLP searches typically provide the leading sensitivity in current data and exhibit the strongest discovery potential in future LHC runs. We further translate the impact of these searches into the parameter space of various Twin Higgs models, demonstrating that LLP searches are a promising avenue for discovering a Twin Higgs with displaced decays. Finally, we propose a variety of additional search channels that would improve coverage of the second Higgs at the lifetime frontier.

Prospects of searches for long-lived charged particles with MoEDAL

We study the prospects of searches for exotic long-lived particles with the MoEDAL detector at the LHC, assuming the integrated luminosity of 30 fb^{-1} that is expected at the end of Run 3. MoEDAL incorporates nuclear track detectors deployed a few metres away from the interaction point, which are sensitive to any highly-ionizing particles. Hence MoEDAL is able to detect singly- or doubly-charged particles with low velocities beta < 0.15 or < 0.3, respectively, and lifetimes larger than {{mathcal {O}}}(1) ,mathrm{m}/c. We examine the MoEDAL sensitivity to various singly-charged supersymmetric particles with long lifetimes and to several types of doubly-charged long-lived particles with different spins and SU(2) charges. We compare the prospective MoEDAL mass reaches to current limits from ATLAS and CMS, which involve auxiliary analysis assumptions. MoEDAL searches for doubly-charged fermions are particularly competitive.