Leveraging intermediate resonances to probe CP violation at colliders

Abstract

We explore the phenomenological impact of interference in tree-level contributions to three-body final states in $2\to 3$ scattering processes. This work introduces a novel search strategy leveraging asymmetries to enable sensitivity to CP-violating effects in less well-explored regions of phase space. Analytically, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this observable in probing interference between Standard Model charged-current decays and effective left-handed vector interactions, illustrated in a toy model featuring a scalar leptoquark, $S_1\sim (3,1,-1/3)$. Numerically, we apply this framework to studying the process $pp\to b\ddot{I}„\hat{I}½$; unlike traditional high-$p_T$ searches or ``bump hunts", this approach utilizes an intermediate energy regime -- where new physics is neither light enough to be produced on shell or heavy enough to justify an effective field theory treatment. A proof-of-principle analysis at parton level demonstrates a percent-level asymmetry, with sensitivity also to BSM weak-CP phase. While the specific phase sensitivity is diminished at particle level due to showering and detector effects, a machine learning classifier can recover sensitively to the presence of SM-BSM interference, significantly outperforming standard analysis methods. Notably discrimination between BSM signal and SM background could be achieved at the 2$\ddot{I}ƒ$ level for the current LHC dataset and 8$\ddot{I}ƒ$ at the High-Luminosity LHC. Moreover, this asymmetry observable as defined can also be more broadly applied to other searches for CP-violation in $2\to 3$ processes in present and future collider environments.

25 pages, 10 figures. Improved analysis and resultant detection prospects, achieved by incorporating use of ML classifier. Published version