English

New Detectors to Explore the Lifetime Frontier

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2017-02-01 v3 High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

Long-lived particles (LLPs) are a common feature in many beyond the Standard Model theories, including supersymmetry, and are generically produced in exotic Higgs decays. Unfortunately, no existing or proposed search strategy will be able to observe the decay of non-hadronic electrically neutral LLPs with masses above \sim GeV and lifetimes near the limit set by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), cτ107108c \tau \lesssim 10^7 - 10^8~m. We propose the MATHUSLA surface detector concept (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra Stable neutraL pArticles), which can be implemented with existing technology and in time for the high luminosity LHC upgrade to find such ultra-long-lived particles (ULLPs), whether produced in exotic Higgs decays or more general production modes. We also advocate for a dedicated LLP detector at a future 100 TeV collider, where a modestly sized underground design can discover ULLPs with lifetimes at the BBN limit produced in sub-percent level exotic Higgs decays.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.06298,
  title  = {New Detectors to Explore the Lifetime Frontier},
  author = {John Paul Chou and David Curtin and H. J. Lubatti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.06298},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures. Added more detail to discussion of backgrounds. Various minor clarifications. Results and conclusions unchanged

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:29:46.939Z