Displaced vertices at colliders, arising from the production and decay of long-lived particles, probe dark matter candidates produced via freeze-in. If one assumes a standard cosmological history, these decays happen inside the detector only if the dark matter is very light because of the relic density constraint. Here, we argue how displaced events could very well point to freeze-in within a non-standard early universe history. Focusing on the cosmology of inflationary reheating, we explore the interplay between the reheating temperature and collider signatures for minimal freeze-in scenarios. Observing displaced events at the LHC would allow to set an upper bound on the reheating temperature and, in general, to gather indirect information on the early history of the universe.
Models in which the dark matter is very weakly coupled to the observable sector may explain the observed dark matter density, either as a "superWIMP" or as "asymmetric dark matter." Both types of models predict displaced vertices at colliders, with a rich variety of possible phenomenology. We classify the cases in which the decays can naturally occur inside particle detectors at the LHC, with particular focus on the nontrivial scenarios where the decaying particle is invisible. Identification of the position and timing of these invisible displaced vertices significantly improves the prospects …
We investigate the sensitivity of future lepton colliders to displaced vertices from the decays of long-lived heavy (almost sterile) neutrinos with electroweak scale masses and detectable time of flight. As future lepton colliders we consider the FCC-ee, the CEPC, and the ILC, searching at the Z-pole and at the center-of-mass energies of 240, 350 and 500 GeV. For a realistic discussion of the detector response to the displaced vertex signal and the Standard Model background we consider the ILC's Silicon Detector (SiD) as benchmark for the future lepton collider detectors. We find that displace…
The existence of a new, photon-like, massive particle, the gamma' or dark photon, is postulated in several extensions of the Standard Model. These models are often advocated to explain some recent puzzling astrophysical observations, as well as to solve the unsofar unexplained deviation between the measured and calculated values of the muon anomaly. Dark photons can be produced at e+e- colliders both in continuum events and in vector meson transitions and can eventually decay into an electron-positron pair. For a proper choice of the parameters of the theory, a $γ'$ can have a relatively long …
Electron proton (ep) colliders could provide particle collisions at TeV energies with large data rates while maintaining the clean and pile~up-free environment of lepton colliders, which makes them very attractive for heavy neutrino searches. Heavy (mainly sterile) neutrinos with masses around the electroweak scale are proposed in low scale seesaw models for neutrino mass generation. In this paper, we analyse two of the most promising signatures of heavy neutrinos at ep colliders, the lepton-flavour violating (LFV) lepton-trijet signature and the displaced vertex signature. In the considered b…
A variety of new-physics models predict metastable particles whose decay length is $\lesssim 1$ mm. Conventional displaced-vertex searches are less sensitive to this sub-millimeter decay range, and thus such metastable particles have been looked for only in usual prompt decay searches. In this paper, we show that an additional event-selection cut based on the vertex reconstruction using charged tracks considerably improves the sensitivity of ordinary searches which rely only on kinematic selection criteria, for particles with a decay length of $\gtrsim 100$ $μ\text{m}$. To that end, we conside…
In the context of Left-Right symmetry, we revisit the Keung-Senjanović production of right-handed $W_R$ bosons and heavy neutrinos $N$ at high energy colliders. We develop a multi-binned sensitivity measure and use it to estimate the sensitivity for the entire range of $N$ masses, spanning the standard and merged prompt signals, displaced vertices and the invisible $N$ region. The estimated sensitivity of the LHC with 300/fb integrated luminosity ranges from 5 to beyond 7 TeV, while the future 33(100) TeV collider's reach with 3/ab extends to 12(26) TeV.
In this article, we explore the possibility of displaced Higgs production from the decays of the heavy fermions in the Type-III seesaw extension of the Standard Model at the LHC/FCC and the muon collider. The displaced heavy fermions and the Higgs boson can be traced back by measuring the displaced charged tracks of the charged leptons along with the $b$-jets. A very small Yukawa coupling can lead to two successive displaced decays which makes the phenomenology even more interesting. The prospects of the transverse and longitudinal displaced decay lengths are extensively studied in the context…
In this paper, we point out a novel signature of physics beyond the Standard Model which could potentially be observed both at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and at future colliders. This signature, which emerges naturally within many proposed extensions of the Standard Model, results from the multiple displaced vertices associated with the successive decays of unstable, long-lived particles along the same decay chain. We call such a sequence of displaced vertices a "tumbler." We examine the prospects for observing tumblers at the LHC and assess the extent to which tumbler signatures can be d…
In this note we discuss a characteristic collider signature of models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking in which the selectron and smuon are mass-degenerate co-NLSP. In these models, all processes involving superpartners give rise to two NLSP selectrons or smuons, each of which subsequently decays to a nearly massless LSP gravitino and an electron or a muon. In a large region of the parameter space, the NLSPs travel macroscopic distances, of the order 0.1-1000 mm, before they decay. Hence, these models give rise to collider signatures involving charged tracks that end at vertices, which…
We investigate a prospect of probing the type-III seesaw neutrino mass generation mechanism at various collider experiments by searching for a disappearing track and a displaced vertex signature originating from the decay of $SU(2)_L$ triplet fermion ($Σ$). Since $Σ$ is primarily produced at colliders through the electroweak gauge interactions, its production rate is uniquely determined by its mass. We find that a $Σ$ particle with a mass of a few hundred GeV produces a disappearing track signature from the decay of its charged component, which can be searched at the HL-LHC. Furthermore, we sh…
The phenomenology of dark sector is complicated if dark sector is charged under a confined hidden gauge group. In such kind of model, a dark parton produced at a high energy collider showers and hadronize to a cluster of dark mesons. Dark mesons then decay to visible particles and produce a jet-like signal, which is called "dark jet" in this work. Collider signal of dark jet depends on the property of dark mesons. For example, a finite lifetime of dark meson would provide displaced vertex or displaced track, thus one can use these displaced objects to tag dark jet. However if the lifetime of d…
The apparent absence of light superpartners at the LHC strongly constrains the viability of the MSSM as a solution to the hierarchy problem. These constraints can be significantly alleviated by R-parity violation (RPV). Bilinear R-parity violation, with the single operator L H_u, does not require any special flavor structure and can be naturally embedded in a GUT while avoiding constraints from proton decay (unlike baryon-number-violating RPV). The LSP in this scenario can be naturally long-lived, giving rise to displaced vertices. Many collider searches, particularly those selecting b-jets or…
The type-II seesaw mechanism with an isospin-triplet scalar $Δ_L$ provides one of the most compelling explanations for the observed smallness of neutrino masses. The triplet contains a doubly-charged component $H_L^{\pm\pm}$, which dominantly decays to either same-sign dileptons or to a pair of $W$ bosons, depending on the size of the triplet vacuum expectation value. However, there exists a range of Yukawa couplings $f_L$ of the triplet to the charged leptons, wherein a relatively light $H_L^{\pm\pm}$ tends to be long-lived, giving rise to distinct displaced-vertex signatures at the high-ener…
We study the Singlet-Doublet dark matter model in the regime of feeble couplings, where the dark matter abundance is obtained via the freeze-in mechanism. As a consequence of the small couplings, the heavier particles in the model are long-lived with decay length at typical scales of collider experiments. We analyse the collider signatures of the model, characterised by displaced $h$ and $Z$ bosons plus missing momentum, employing current LHC searches for displaced vertices and missing energy to significantly constrain the parameter space of the model. We also take into account the cosmologica…
Displaced tracks as a signal of dark matter co-annihilation: a case study using inert doublet model at $e^+e^-$ collider
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati（印度加尔各答理工学院）；Wilczek Quantum Center, Shanghai Institute for Advanced Studies（韦泽克量子中心，上海高等研究院）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata（印度科学教育与研究学院加尔各答分校）
The Twin Higgs mechanism keeps the scalar sector of the Standard Model (SM) natural while remaining consistent with the non-observation of new colored particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this construction the heavy twin Higgs boson provides a portal between the SM particles and the twin sector, but is quite challenging to discover at colliders. In the Fraternal Twin Higgs setup, where light twin quarks are absent, we study a novel discovery channel for the heavy twin Higgs boson by considering its decay to a pair of light Higgs bosons, one of which subsequently decays to glueball …
Searching Dark Photons using displaced vertices at Belle II -- with backgrounds
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University（海德堡大学理论物理研究所）；Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University（拉德堡德大学数学、天体物理学和粒子物理研究所）；Nikhef（荷兰国家核子和亚原子物理研究所）
We propose a systematic programme to search for long-lived neutral particle signatures through a minimal set of displaced searches requiring significant missing transverse energy (dMETs). Our approach is to extend the well-established dark matter simplified models to include displaced vertices. The dark matter simplified models are used to describe the primary production vertex. A displaced secondary vertex, characterised by the mass of the long-lived particle and its lifetime, is added for the displaced signature. We show how these models can be motivated by, and mapped onto, complete models …
Displaced vertices are relatively unusual signatures for dark matter searches at the LHC. We revisit the model of pseudo-Dirac dark matter (pDDM), which can accommodate the correct relic density, evade direct detection constraints, and generically provide observable collider signatures in the form of displaced vertices. We use this model as a benchmark to illustrate the general techniques involved in the analysis, the complementarity between monojet and displaced vertex searches, and provide a comprehensive study of the current bounds and prospective reach.
Soft displaced leptons are representative collider signatures of compressed dark sectors with feeble couplings to the standard model. Prime targets are dark matter scenarios where co-scattering or co-annihilation sets the relic abundance upon freeze-out. At the LHC, searches for soft displaced leptons are challenged by a large background from hadron or tau lepton decays. In this article, we present an analysis tailored for displaced leptons with a low transverse momentum threshold at 20 GeV. Using a neural network, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the event kinematics, including a study …
We propose a simple way to extract particle masses given a displaced vertex signature in event topologies where two long-lived mother particles decay to visible particles and an invisible daughter. The mother could be either charged or neutral and the neutral daughter could correspond to a dark matter particle in different models. The method allows to extract the parent and daughter masses by using on-shell conditions and energy-momentum conservation, in addition to the displaced decay positions of the parents, which allows to solve the kinematic equations fully on an event-by-event basis. We …
Dark matter, $X$, may be generated by new physics at the TeV scale during an early matter-dominated (MD) era that ends at temperature $T_R \ll {\rm TeV}$. Compared to the conventional radiation-dominated (RD) results, yields from both Freeze-Out and Freeze-In processes are greatly suppressed by dilution from entropy production, making Freeze-Out less plausible while allowing successful Freeze-In with a much larger coupling strength. Freeze-In is typically dominated by the decay of a particle $B$ of the thermal bath, $B \rightarrow X$. For a large fraction of the relevant cosmological parameter…
We initiate the study of exotic Higgs decays to long-lived particles (LLPs) at proposed future lepton colliders, focusing on scenarios with displaced hadronic final states. Our analysis entails a realistic tracker-based search strategy involving the reconstruction of displaced secondary vertices and the imposition of selection cuts appropriate for eliminating the largest irreducible backgrounds. The projected sensitivity is broadly competitive with that of the LHC and potentially superior at lower LLP masses. In addition to forecasting branching ratio limits, which may be freely interpreted in…
We present a supersymmetric model of leptogenesis in which the right-handed neutrinos have weak scale masses and O(10-2-10-3) yukawa couplings. The model employs an R-symmetry at the weak scale that forces neutrino masses to be proportional to the gravitino mass. We predict that the lightest right-handed neutrino decays to a displaced Higgs and neutrino and that the NLSP is long-lived on collider scales. These could be striking signatures at the LHC if, for instance, the right-handed neutrino is produced in a cascade decay.
We study self-interacting dark matter signatures at the Large Hadron Collider. A light dark photon, mediating dark matter self-interactions, can bind dark matter particles to form a bound state when they are produced via a heavy pseduoscalar in $pp$ collisions. The bound state can further annihilate into a pair of boosted dark photons, which subsequently decay into charged leptons through a kinetic mixing portal, resulting in striking displaced lepton jet signals. After adapting the analysis used in the ATLAS experiment, we explore the reach of the model parameters at the $13~{\rm TeV}$ run wi…
In this whitepaper, we consider the model of heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) as an example to explore the potential of new physics searches at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). We propose two broad categories of search strategies depending on the HNL lifetime: direct searches for the prompt decay of HNLs with a short lifetime and displaced vertex searches for long-lived ones. After identifying the most promising signals and the corresponding backgrounds, we perform a detailed simulation to estimate the sensitivity of the EIC to HNLs, accounting for detector thresholds, resolutions, and geometric a…
The "$μ$ from $ν$" supersymmetric standard model ($μν$SSM) cures the $μ$-problem and concurrently reproduces measured neutrino data by using a set of usual right-handed neutrino superfields. Recently, the LHC has revealed the first scalar boson which naturally makes it tempting to test $μν$SSM in the light of this new discovery. We show that this new scalar while decaying to a pair of unstable long-lived neutralinos, can lead to a distinct signal with non-prompt multileptons. With concomitant collider analysis we show that this signal provides an unmistakable signature of the model, pronounced…
Extending the Standard Model with right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) is well motivated by the observation of neutrino oscillations. In the type-I seesaw model, the RHNs interact with the SM particles via tiny mixings with the active neutrinos, which makes their discovery in the laboratory, and in particular at collider experiments in general challenging. In this work we instead consider an extension of the type-I seesaw model with the addition of a leptoquark (LQ), and employ a non-minimal production mechanism of the RHN via LQ decay, which is unsuppressed by neutrino mixing. We focus on relatively…
Low-scale models of neutrino mass generation often feature sterile neutrinos with masses in the GeV-TeV range, which can be produced at colliders through their mixing with the Standard Model neutrinos. We consider an alternative scenario in which the sterile neutrino is produced in the decay of a heavier particle, such that its production cross section does not depend on the active-sterile neutrino mixing angles. The mixing angles can be accessed through the decays of the sterile neutrino, provided that they lead to observable displaced vertices. We present an explicit realization of this scen…
We explore the possibility of having superpartners of triplet Higgs bosons, named as 'triplinos'. They form a part of light neutralinos and charginos in a $Y=0$ extended supersymmetric Standard Model. For this model such electroweakinos do not have direct couplings to the Standard Model fermions. On top of that, due to very compressed spectrum for lighter neutralinos and charginos, their decay products coming from three body decays are very soft and thus can evade the current collider bounds. These decays are particularly interesting since they give rise to displaced leptonic signatures. We ca…
Spin-0 singlets arise in well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. Their lifetime determines the best search strategies at hadron and lepton colliders. To cover a large range of singlet decay lengths, we investigate bounds from Higgs decays into a pair of singlets, considering signatures of invisible decays, displaced and delayed jets, and coupling fits of untagged decays. We examine the generic scalar singlet and the relaxion, and derive a matching as well as qualitative differences between them. For each model, we discuss its natural parameter space and the searches probing it.
Axion or axion-like particle (ALP) has been usually considered as a CP-odd Nambu-Goldstone boson (NGB) from the spontaneous breakdown of a global U(1) symmetry. In this paper, we point out that the NGB behaves as a CP-even particle coupled to the SM particles in a large class of simple (or perhaps the simplest) renormalizable models. We provide a first study of the collider phenomenology and cosmology of the CP-even ALP. In a natural parameter region, the CP-even ALP can be produced from the Higgs boson decay in colliders. When the mass is not very light, the signals will be Higgs exotic decay…
Probing Neutrino Compositeness with Invisible and Displaced Signals
INFN, Sezione di Firenze（意大利国家核物理研究所佛罗伦萨分部）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence（佛罗伦萨大学物理与天文学系）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理珀米特研究所）；Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics（伽利略·伽利莱理论物理研究所）
We examine the observability of heavy neutrino (nu_h) signatures of a U(1)' enlarged Standard Model (SM) encompassing three heavy Majorana neutrinos alongside the known light neutrino states at the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We show that heavy neutrinos can be rather long-lived particles producing distinctive displaced vertices that can be accessed in the CERN LHC detectors. We concentrate here on the gluon fusion production mechanism gg -> H_{1,2} -> nu_h nu_h, where H_1 is the discovered SM-like Higgs and H_2 is a heavier state, yielding displaced leptons following nu_h decays into wea…
Profiling the Higgs boson requires the study of its non-standard decay modes. In this work we discuss the prospects of the Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) to detect scalar particles with masses $\gtrsim$ 10 GeV produced from decays of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson. These scalar particles decay mainly to bottom pairs, and in a vast portion of the allowed parameter space they acquire a macroscopic lifetime, hence giving rise to displaced hadronic vertices. The LHeC provides a very clean environment that allows for easy identification of these final states, in contrast to hadronic col…
In Higgs portal models of fermion dark matter, scalar couplings are unavoidably suppressed by strong bounds from direct detection experiments. As a consequence, thermal dark matter relics must coexist with mediators in a compressed spectrum of dark particles. Small couplings and small mass splittings lead to slow mediator decays, leaving signatures with displaced vertices or disappearing tracks at colliders. We perform a comprehensive analysis of long-lived mediators at the LHC in the context of a minimal dark matter model with a naturally small Higgs portal, also known as the wino-bino scenar…
We investigate the pair-production of right-handed neutrinos via the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson in a gauged $B-L$ model. The right-handed neutrinos with a mass of few tens of GeV generating viable light neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism naturally exhibit displaced vertices and distinctive signatures at the LHC and proposed lepton colliders. The production rate of the right-handed neutrinos depends on the mixing between the SM Higgs and the exotic Higgs associated with the $B-L$ breaking, whereas their decay length depends on the active-sterile neutrino mixing. We focus on the displ…
Supersymmetric extensions of the standard model exhibiting bilinear R-parity violation can generate naturally the observed neutrino mass spectrum as well mixings. One interesting feature of these scenarios is that the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is unstable, with several of its decay properties predicted in terms of neutrino mixing angles. A smoking gun of this model in colliders is the presence of displaced vertices due to LSP decays in large parts of the parameter space. In this work we focus on the simplest model of this type that comes from minimal supergravity with universal R-…
We investigate the potential reach of a search for a long-lived/prompt dark vector boson $Z_D$, also called dark $Z$, and a prompt dark Higgs boson $h_D$ through exotic decays of the observed Higgs boson $h$ into either $Z_DZ_D$, $h_Dh_D$, or $ZZ_D$ with $Z$ being the hypercharge gauge boson. The $Z_D$ production through the Higgs portal is completed via one of two mechanisms, kinetic mixing of $Z_D$ with $Z$ and the mixing of $h_D$ with $h$. All production modes of $h$ are considered, while the branching fractions are calculated in Monte Carlo simulation using the {\textsc{MadGraph5}}\_aMC@NL…
We study a simplified model of the SM Higgs boson decaying to a degenerate pair of scalars which travel a macroscopic distance before decaying to SM particles. This is the leading signal for many well-motivated solutions to the hierarchy problem that do not propose additional light colored particles. Bounds for displaced Higgs decays below $10$ cm are found by recasting existing tracker searches from Run I. New tracker search strategies, sensitive to the characteristics of these models and similar decays, are proposed with sensitivities projected for Run II at $\sqrt{s} = 13 $ TeV. With 20 fb$…
After a brief review of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and specifically the Minimal Supergravity Model (SUGRA), the prospects for discovering and studying SUSY at the CERN Large Hadron Collider are reviewed. The possible role for a future Lepton Collider --- whether $μ^+μ^-$ or $e^+e^-$ --- is also discussed.
We present a class of dark matter models, in which the dark matter particle is a feebly interacting massive particle (FIMP) produced via the decay of an electrically charged and/or colored parent particle. Given the feeble interaction, dark matter is produced via the freeze-in mechanism and the parent particle is long-lived. The latter leads to interesting collider signatures. We study current LHC constrains on our models arising from searches for heavy charged particles, disappearing tracks, displaced leptons and displaced vertices. We demonstrate not only that collider searches can be a powe…
A dark sector -- a new non-Abelian gauge group Higgsed or confined near the GeV scale -- can be spectacularly probed in low-energy e+e- collisions. A low-mass dark sector can explain the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA/LIBRA and the PAMELA, ATIC, and INTEGRAL observations by generating small mass splittings and new interactions for weak-scale dark matter. Some of these observations may be the first signs of a low-mass dark sector that collider searches can definitively confirm. Production and decay of O(GeV)-mass dark states is mediated by a Higgsed Abelian gauge boson that mixes kin…
We study the perspective to observe lepton number violating signatures from heavy Majorana neutrino decays at colliders in view of the requirement to explain the light neutrino masses via the seesaw mechanism. In the minimal model with only two heavy neutrinos and in the $ν$MSM one can identify three distinct regions in the mass-mixing plane. For Majorana masses above the electroweak scale the branching ratio for lepton number violating processes at the LHC is generically suppressed. For masses well below the electroweak scale that are probed in displaced vertex searches or at fixed target exp…
