Novel signatures for long-lived particles at the LHC

Abstract

In contrast to the decay products ensuing from a fast moving particle which are collimated along the original direction of the parent, those from a slow moving particle are distributed over a wide region. In the context of searches for heavy long-lived particles (LLP) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we quantitatively demonstrate, using a few benchmark models, that objects which emerge from a secondary vertex due to the decay of an LLP at the TeV scale can be at large angular separations with respect to the direction of the parent LLP. A fraction of the decay products, the backward moving objects (\textit{BMO}s), can even go in the backward direction. These will give rise to striking signatures in the detectors at the LHC as these particles will traverse different layers of the detector {\it outside-in} towards the direction of the beam-pipe. Based on a simple geometrical modelling of the detector, we give examples of how this effect translates into the fraction of energy deposited in the tracker, from particles coming as far as from the hadron calorimeter, as well as those that could be entering from outside the detector into the muon chamber. The largest effect is from LLP candidates that come to rest inside the detector, such as the stopped $R$-hadrons. But the results are promising even in the case of not so heavy LLPs and/or when some of the available energy is carried by a massive invisible daughter. This urges us to look more in details at these unusual signatures, taking into account the particularities of each layer that constitutes the detector. From the \textit{BMO} perspective, we review how each layer of the detector could be exploited and what improvements can be made to enhance the shower shapes and the timing information, for instance. We also argue that the cosmic ray events, the most important background, can be easily dealt with.

v2; 22 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; version vastly expanded with more details; title changed to "A novel signature for long-lived particles at the LHC" in the journal version; version accepted for publication in PRD; conclusions updated

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