Hunting the Invisible: A Search for Long-Lived Particles

Synopsis

The Swiss-French border houses the world’s largest experiment: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We are on a mission to uncover some of the universe’s greatest secrets, searching for signs of particles that don’t easily reveal themselves. Among these elusive targets are long-lived particles (LLPs) [1], which could hold clues about dark matter and the unseen structure of the universe. Unlike most particles that decay almost instantly, LLPs travel some distance before decaying, creating unusual signals that standard detectors struggle to catch. To find these particles, we develop unique techniques and data-driven methods to sift through enormous amounts of collision data. By analyzing events where particle tracks seem to appear out of nowhere, we gain insights into unexplored aspects of particle physics, potentially unveiling new physics beyond the Standard Model. Through this search, we hope to bridge our understanding of known particles with the mysteries that lie beyond, possibly opening doors to discoveries as groundbreaking as dark matter itself. This talk will give a look into the cutting-edge techniques and exciting challenges involved in hunting these hidden particles at LHC.

[1] Aad, G., & Others. (2022). Search for events with a pair of displaced vertices from long-lived neutral particles decaying into hadronic jets in the ATLAS muon spectrometer in pp collisions at 𝑠 =13 TeV. Phys. Rev. D, 106(3), 032005. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.106.032005