Leptons lurking in semi-visible jets at the LHC

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2022-09, Vol.82 (9), p.793-8, Article 793
• Main Authors: Cazzaniga, Cesare, de Cosa, Annapaola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Collisions (Nuclear physics); Dark matter; Decay; Elementary Particles; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Jets; Large Hadron Collider; Leptons; Letter; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Physics; Orthogonality; Particle accelerators; Particle collisions; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Protons; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quarks; Search methods; Sensitivity analysis; Sensitivity enhancement; String Theory
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10775-2

This Letter proposes a new search for confining dark sectors at the Large Hadron Collider. As a result of the strong dynamics in the hidden sector, dark matter could manifest in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in form of hadronic jets containing stable invisible bound states. These semi-visible jets have been studied theoretically and experimentally in the fully hadronic signature where the unstable composite dark matter can only decay promptly back to Standard Model quarks. We present a simplified model based on two messenger fields separated by a large mass gap allowing dark bound states to decay into pairs of oppositely charged leptons. The resulting experimental signature is characterized by non-isolated lepton pairs inside semi-visible jets. We propose a search strategy independent from the underlying model assumptions targeting this new signature, and discuss the orthogonality with respect to the existing searches. Remaining agnostic on the shape of the di-lepton spectrum, we determine the sensitivity of a dedicated analysis to the target signal. The proposed search can claim the 3 σ evidence (exclusion) of the heavier mediator up to masses of 3.5 TeV (4.5 TeV) with the full Run 2 data of the LHC. Exploiting the resonant feature of the lepton pairs can enhance the sensitivity reach on a specific model. We estimate that an analysis using the di-lepton invariant mass information can reach 5 σ discovery up to masses of 3.5 TeV and improve the exclusion up to more than 5 TeV.