7 pages, 4 figures; Version accepted for publication in PRD Letter, including experimental results published after version-1 that imply new limits on the axion parameters
The QCD axion is a well-motivated addition to the standard model to solve the strong $C\!P$ problem. If the axion acquires mass dominantly from a hidden sector, it can be as heavy as $O(1)$ GeV, and the decay constant can be as low as $O(100)$ GeV without running into the axion quality problem. We propose new search strategies for such heavy QCD axions at the Belle II experiment, where the axions are expected to be produced via $B\to K a$. We find that a subsequent decay $a\to 3π$ with a displaced vertex leads to a unique signal with essentially no background, and that a dedicated search can explore the range $O(1$-$10)$ TeV of decay-constant values. We also show that $a\to γγ$ can cover a significant portion of currently unexplored region of $150 \lesssim m_a \lesssim 500$ MeV.
Many dark matter models generically predict invisible and displaced signatures at Belle II, but even striking events may be missed by the currently implemented search programme because of inefficient trigger algorithms. Of particular interest are final states with a single photon accompanied by missing energy and a displaced pair of electrons, muons, or hadrons. We argue that a displaced vertex trigger will be essential to achieve optimal sensitivity at Belle II. To illustrate this point, we study a simple but well-motivated model of thermal inelastic dark matter in which this signature natura…
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）
With a design luminosity of 50 ab$^{-1}$ and detectors with tracking capabilities extending beyond 1 m, the Belle II experiment is the perfect laboratory for the search of particles that couple weakly to the Standard Model and have a characteristic decay length of a few centimetres and more. We show that for models of dark photons and other light vector bosons, Belle II will be successful in probing regions of parameter space which are as of now unexplored by any experiment. In addition, for models where the vector boson couples sub-dominantly to the electron and quarks as compared to muons, e…
Probing $ν$SMEFT at Belle II with displaced dilepton vertices
Jožef Stefan Institute（约热普夫斯特凡研究所）；Charles University Prague（布拉格查理大学）；Silesian University in Opava（奥帕瓦西里西亚大学）；University of Zagreb（萨格勒布大学）；University of Graz（格拉茨大学）；Tel Aviv University（特拉维夫大学）
Large numbers of $τ$ leptons are produced at Belle II. These could potentially decay into sterile neutrinos that, for the mass range under consideration, are typically long-lived, leading to displaced-vertex signatures. Here, we study a displaced-vertex search sterile-neutrino-extended Standard Model Effective Field Theory. The production and decay of the sterile neutrinos can be realized via either the standard active-sterile neutrino mixing or higher-dimensional operators in the effective Lagrangian. We perform Monte-Carlo simulations to estimate the Belle II sensitivities to such interactio…
The inelastic dark matter model is one kind of popular models for the light dark matter (DM) below $O(1)$ GeV. If the mass splitting between DM excited and ground states is small enough, the co-annihilation becomes the dominant channel for thermal relic density and the DM excited state can be long-lived at the collider scale. We study scalar and fermion inelastic dark matter models for $ {\cal O}(1) $ GeV DM at Belle II with $ U(1)_D $ dark gauge symmetry broken into its $Z_2$ subgroup. We focus on dilepton displaced vertex signatures from decays of the DM excited state. With the help of preci…
Light pseudoscalars interacting pre-dominantly with Standard Model gauge bosons (so-called axion-like particles or ALPs) occur frequently in extensions of the Standard Model. In this work we review and update existing constraints on ALPs in the keV to GeV mass region from colliders, beam dump experiments and astrophysics. We furthermore provide a detailed calculation of the expected sensitivity of Belle II, which can search for visibly and invisibly decaying ALPs, as well as long-lived ALPs. The Belle II sensitivity is found to be substantially better than previously estimated, covering wide r…
We study charged lepton flavor violation associated with a light leptophilic axion-like particle (ALP), $X$, at the $B$-factory experiment Belle II. We focus on production of the ALP in the tau decays $τ\to X l$ with $l=e,μ$, followed by its decay via $X\to l^- l^+$. The ALP can be either promptly decaying or long-lived. We perform Monte-Carlo simulations, recasting a prompt search at Belle for lepton-flavor-violating $τ$ decays, and propose a displaced-vertex (DV) search. For both types of searches, we derive the Belle~II sensitivity reaches in both the product of branching fractions and the …
We investigate various search strategies for light vector boson $X$ in $\mathcal{O}(10)~{\rm MeV}$ mass range using $J/Ψ$ associated channels at BESIII and Belle II: (i) $J/Ψ\to η_c X$ with $10^{10} J/Ψ$s at BESIII, (ii) $J/Ψ(η_c +X) +\ell \bar{\ell}$ production at Belle~II, and (iii) $J/Ψ+X$ with the displaced vertex in $X\to e^+e^-$ decay are analyzed and the future sensitivities at Belle II with 50 ${\rm ab}^{-1}$ luminosity are comprehensively studied. By requiring the displaced vertex to be within the beam pipe, the third method results in nearly background-free analysis, and the vector b…
We consider light neutralinos of mass about 1 GeV, produced from $τ$ lepton rare decays at Belle II, in the context of R-parity-violating (RPV) supersymmetry. With large and clean samples of $τ$ leptons produced at the Belle II experiment, excellent sensitivity to such light neutralinos with the exotic signatures of displaced vertices is expected. We focus on two benchmark scenarios of single RPV operators, $λ'_{311} L_3 Q_1 \bar{D}_1$ and $λ'_{312} L_3 Q_1 \bar{D}_2$, which induce both the production and decay of the lightest neutralino. For the reconstruction of a displaced vertex, we requir…
Dark showers from strongly interacting dark sectors that confine at the GeV scale can give rise to novel signatures at $e^+e^-$ colliders. In this work, we study the sensitivity of $B$ factory experiments to dark showers produced through an effective interaction arising from a heavy off-shell mediator. We show that a prospective search for displaced vertices from GeV-scale long-lived particles at Belle II can improve the sensitivity to dark showers substantially compared to an existing search at BaBar. We compare the sensitivity of searches for displaced signals to searches for promptly produc…
We propose a new search for light scalar singlets in rare meson decays. For tiny interactions, the scalar is long-lived at detector scales and decays into displaced pairs of leptons or light mesons. We show that Belle II has a remarkable potential to probe scalars in the GeV range with couplings as small as $10^{-5}$. The predicted sensitivity is higher than at the long-baseline experiments FASER and NA62. We also investigate signatures of invisibly decaying scalars in rare meson decays with missing energy.
If light new physics with lepton-flavor-violating couplings exists, the prime discovery channel might not be $\ell\to\ell'γ$ but rather $\ell\to\ell' X$, where the new boson $X$ could be an axion, majoron, familon or Z' gauge boson. The most conservative bound then comes from $\ell\to\ell'+\mathrm{inv}$, but if the on-shell $X$ can decay back into leptons or photons, displaced-vertex searches could give much better limits. We show that only a narrow region in parameter space allows for displaced vertices in muon decays, $μ\to e X, X\to γγ, ee$, whereas tauon decays can have much more interesti…
The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) not only solves the strong CP problem but also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While SUSY axion phenomenology is usually restricted to searches for the axion itself or searches for the ordinary SUSY particles, this work focuses on scenarios where the axion's superpartner, the axino, may be detectable at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the decays of neutralinos displaced from the primary vertex. In particular, we focus on the KSVZ axino within the hadronic axion window. The decay lengt…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) interacting with the Standard Model can be abundantly produced in proton beam fixed-target experiments. Looking for their displaced decays is therefore an effective search strategy for ALPs with a mass in the MeV to GeV range. Focusing on the benchmark models where the ALP interacts dominantly with photons or gluons, we show that the proposed DarkQuest experiment at Fermilab will be able to test parameter space which has been previously inaccessible. We pay particular attention to the self-consistency of gluon-coupled ALP production and decay calculations, which has…
Highly boosted axion-like particles decaying into photon pairs are notoriously hard to detect at the LHC. The collimated decay photons cannot be individually reconstructed using only electromagnetic calorimeter information, making the signal less distinguishable from background. In this note we propose a search strategy to address this issue, exploiting the fact that a fraction of the decay photons convert into electron-positron pairs inside the tracking detector. The resulting tracks can be resolved with high resolution, allowing to separate the two collimated photons and resolve a displaced …
We assess the impact of searches at flavor factories for new neutral resonances that couple to both photons and gluons. These are well motivated by "heavy axion" solutions of the strong CP problem and by frameworks addressing both Dark Matter and the Higgs hierarchy problem. We use LHCb public diphoton data around the Bs mass to derive the current best limit on these resonances for masses between 4.9 and 6.3 GeV. We estimate that a future LHCb dedicated search would test an axion decay constant of O(TeV) for axion masses in the few-to-tens of GeV, being fully complementary to the low mass ATLA…
The CMS phase II track trigger may allow for a displaced dimuon vertex trigger with qualitatively lower $p_T$ thresholds than existing dimuon triggers. With this technique, we show that the CMS reach for exotic $B$-meson decays involving a displaced dimuon resonance, such as a light, Higgs-mixed scalar, can be competitive with that of LHCb and Belle II.
Axion models with generation-dependent Peccei-Quinn charges can lead to flavor-changing neutral currents, thus motivating QCD axion searches at precision flavor experiments. We rigorously derive limits on the most general effective flavor-violating couplings from current measurements and assess their discovery potential. For two-body decays we use available experimental data to derive limits on $q\to q' a$ decay rates for all flavor transitions. Axion contributions to neutral-meson mixing are calculated in a systematic way using chiral perturbation theory and operator product expansion. We als…
We present, how a systematic study of $B \to D\ell N$ ($D \to K \ell N$) decays with $\ell=μ,τ$, at Belle II (BESIII) can provide unambiguous signature of a heavy neutrino $N$ and/or constrain its mixing with active neutrinos $ν_\ell$, which is parameterized by $|U_{\ell N}|^2$. Our constraint on $|U_{μN}|^2$ that can be achieved from the full Belle II data is comparable with what can be obtained from the much larger data set of the upgraded LHCb. Additionally, our method offers better constraint on $|U_{μN}|^2$ for mass of sterile neutrino $m_N < 2$ GeV. We can also probe the Dirac and Majora…
SUSY models with a modified dark sector require constraints to be reinterpreted, which may allow for scenarios with low tuning. A modified dark sector can also change the phenomenology greatly. The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) solves the strong CP problem and also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While SUSY axion phenomenology is usually restricted to searches for the axion itself or searches for the ordinary SUSY particles, this work focuses on scenarios where the axion's superpartner, the axino may be detectable at the…
We investigate the physics case for a dedicated trigger on a low mass, hadronic displaced vertex at the high luminosity LHC, relying on the CMS phase II track trigger. We estimate the trigger efficiency with a simplified simulation of the CMS track trigger and show that the L1 trigger rate from fake vertices, B meson decays and secondary interactions with the detector material can likely be brought down to the kHz level with a minimal set of cuts. While it would with any doubt be a severe experimental challenge to implement, we conclude that a displaced vertex trigger could open qualitatively …
The proposed LDMX experiment would provide roughly a meter-long region of instrumented tracking and calorimetry that acts as a beam stop for multi-GeV electrons in which each electron is tagged and its evolution measured. This would offer an unprecedented opportunity to access both collider-invisible and ultra-short lifetime decays of new particles produced in electron (or muon)-nuclear fixed-target collisions. In this paper, we show that the missing momentum channel and displaced decay signals in such an experiment could provide world-leading sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter, millicharged p…
Lepton flavor violated processes are strongly suppressed in the Standard Model, but can be sizable in some extended models. The current experimental bounds on decay modes $\ell'^{\pm} \to a \ell^{\pm}$ are much weaker than the other processes because of the huge irreducible backgrounds $\ell'^{\pm} \to \ell^{\pm} \barν_{\ell} ν_{\ell'}$. In this paper, we study polarization effects of both the signals and backgrounds. We find that signals and backgrounds have distinctive polarization effects, and for the irreducible backgrounds both longitudinal and transverse polarization effects survive when…
Bridging the divide: axion searches and axino phenomenology at colliders
University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago（恩里科·费米研究所，芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所，芝加哥大学）；Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Chicago（莱因韦伯理论物理研究所，芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI)（宇宙物理与数学卡弗里研究所（WPI））；The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study（东京大学高等研究院）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）
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）
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…
Sweeping the pion chimney for axion-like particles with KOTO
University of California Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics（圣克鲁兹粒子物理研究所）；Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（欧内斯特·奥兰多·劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校物理系理论物理中心）
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…
The structure of multi-axion solutions to the strong CP problem
Physik-Institut, Universitat Zürich（苏黎世大学物理学院）；Departamento de Física Teórica and Instituto de Física Teórica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid（马德里自治大学理论物理系及UAM/CSIC理论物理研究所）；PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences（瑞士保罗谢勒研究所中子与μ子科学中心）；Department of Physics, University of Basel（巴塞尔大学物理系）
