Search

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 O (10−4) with lifetime cτX ∼ 0.1–1 meters, while for the gluon gluon fusion channel it is about 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Higgs invisible decay width may soon become a powerful tool to probe extensions of the Standard Model with dark matter candidates at the Large Hadron Collider. In this work, we calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) electroweak corrections to the 125 GeV Higgs decay width into two dark matter particles. The model is the next-to-minimal 2-Higgs-doublet model (N2HDM) in the dark doublet phase, that is, only one doublet and the singlet acquire vacuum expectation values. We show that the present measurement of the Higgs invisible branching ratio, BR(H → invisible < 0.11), does not lead to constraints on the parameter space of the model at leading order. This is due to the very precise measurements of the Higgs couplings but could change in the near future. Furthermore, if NLO corrections are required not to be unphysically large, no limits on the parameter space can be extracted from the NLO results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]