Searches for Hidden Sectors at CMS
Alexei Safonov Texas A&M Universityfor the CMS Collaboration
BOOST-2012, Valencia, Spain, July 2012
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Why Searching for Hidden Sectors?•Dark matter is one big reason
▫If satellite experiments excesses have something to do with the dark matter, these could signify presence of dark sectors
•Higgs “problems”:▫While SUSY can be the answer to the hierarchy
problem, MSSM isn’t that great of a candidate Fine tuning, the m-problem etc. …and in all likelihood it’s wrong anyway
▫NMSSM can help some of these problems Yields a more complex higgs sector with new
fields weakly coupling to SM particles •Finally, they just might be there…
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▫ Unknown pulsar? Cosmic rays interacting with giant molecular clouds?
▫ Or heavy dark matter annihilation in the galactic halo with a large x-section: Light dark photon : an attractive long-
distance force between slow WIMPs Sommerfeld enhancement
can weakly couple to SM via kinetic mixing with photon
As no antiproton excess observed, M( ≲ O(1 GeV)
TeV Scale Dark Matter
arXiv:1109.0521v1
X
X
m-, e-
m+, e+
m-, e-
m+, e+
• PAMELA and Fermi observe rising positron fraction towards higher energy:
A. Safonov, Boost-2012, Valenica, Spain, July 2012
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• Modified superpotential:▫ MSSM: ▫ NMSSM:
• NMSSM less fine tuning and solves m-problem:▫ m is generated by singlet field VEV and naturally
has EW scale• More complex Higgs sector:
▫3 CP-even higgses h1,2,3, 2 CP-odd higgses a1,2
▫ a1 is hidden as it is mostly singlet and weakly couples to SM particles except through h1
• Experimentally relevant decays: (Branchings depend on mixing) (standard higgs hierarchy)
Couplings are weak but it has to decay somewhere
NMMSM Phenomenology
A. Safonov, Boost-2012, Valenica, Spain, July 2012
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A “Long Living” Example•A separate hidden strongly interacting
sector coupling to SM only through a heavy Z’▫Visible higgs(es) can naturally mix with the
hidden higgs
One can have models with higgs-like decays too
•Striking signatures, relatively easy to look at
Strassler, Zurek, PLB 661 (2008)
If Z’ is heavy, “hidden pions” can easily have decay lengths O(0-100 cm)
▫Z-like decay hierarchy for new hidden bosons
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Hidden Sectors Search Strategies• Produce something that links visible and hidden
sectors and look for evidence of new hidden states:▫In the dark SUSY the “stable” visible LSP has no
choice but to decay to hidden states even if small couplings If we can make the LSP either through squark/gluino
production or Higgs, we can see its decay products▫In the NMSSM new higgs states can have very weak
coupling to SM, but appreciable coupling to the SM-like higgs due to mixing – look for exotic higgs decays Similar story for the “long living” example model
• Brute force: make hidden sector particles▫Because of typically small couplings, need high
luminosity and/or super clean final states
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Search for Displaced Muon Pairs•Generic search for H0XX, using leptonic
decays Xll, with X having substantial lifetime▫2011 data: L=4 fb-1 for l=e, L=5 fb-1 for l=m
•Selections:▫Displaced e/m candidate defined as a track
within |h|<2 with pT>41/33 GeV and d0/sd>3/2▫Require at least one X-candidate per event:
A common vertex with c2/ndf>4, displaced more than 8/5svtx-fit from the beamline for e/m channel
M(ee/mm)>15 GeV, DR(mm)>0.2, pT(e) from ECAL Isolation: SpT <4 GeV counting tracks w/ pT>1 GeV
in DR(trk,e/m)<0.4 around each lepton (but not counting the other lepton in the X-candidate)
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Search for Displaced Muon Pairs• Avoid standard lepton ID:
▫Inefficient for displaced tracks• Efficiency driven by tracking
reconstruction efficiency▫Cross-checked with cosmic
muon data
• Backgrounds dominated by Drell-Yan events▫ Shape from simulation cross
checked with data• Normalization from the fit of the
vertex Lxy/s distribution▫ B= and for e/m channel
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Search for Displaced Muon Pairs•Signal region (significant Lxy): no excess
▫N0 events with Xmm candidates▫4 events Xee candidates )
•Limits as a function of the new boson mass
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Search for Displaced Muon Pairs•Limits vs lifetime for M(H)=200 GeV and
1 TeV▫Reflect track reconstruction efficiency
dependence on decay path length▫More details in CMS-EXO-11-101 (public
note)
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Dark Photons in SUSY Cascades•SUSY with squarks/gluinos
accessible by LHC:
•Dark photons decay as SM g
Branching fraction of arxiv:1002.2952
▫MSSM LSP is a neutralino decaying to dark neutralino and light gdark/hdark
▫MSSM LSP is a squark decaying to q and light dark fermion and gdark/hdark
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Selections• Data:
▫ 35 pb-1 of 2010 LHC data▫ Inclusive muon trigger pT>15 GeV
• Offline:▫ Require at least 1 muon with pT>15 GeV, |h|<0.9▫ Identify all other muons with pT>5 GeV, |h|<2.4▫ Reconstruct muon jets and categorize▫ No isolations, cluster using pairwise mass of muons
• Assume new bosons produced on-shell:
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name description Lead m-Jet pT BackgroundsR1
2 Single dimuon+X >80 GeV/c 2m’s from a b-jet, Drell YanR1
4 Single quadmuon+X
no explicit cut 2m’s from a b-jet + 2 fakes
R22 2 Two dimuons+X no explicit cut bb-bar+X, 2m’s from each
bRN
5 + All other categories
no explicit cut Rare, from bb-bar+X/fakes
• No events with consistent masses of dimuons in higher order categories
Topologies: Data and Backgrounds
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Model-Independent Interpretation• Use three simplest topologies to set
“conservative” model independent limits:▫Dimuon+X▫Two-dimuon+X▫Quadmuon+X
• Limits of applicability:▫Mean pT(m-jet)≤250GeV
• Easy to apply to other models:▫Follow analysis steps to calculate branching and
acceptance for a specific final state assuming an ideal detector
▫Compare with the limit plot Complex topologies can be reduced to one of these
three
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Models with TeV Scale Dark Matter
•MSSM LSP is a squark decaying to a quark, light dark fermion and either gdark (left) or hdark (right)
Model from JHEP 04 (2009) 014.
More details in CMS-EXO-11-013 and JHEP07 (2011) 098
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Light Dark Sectors and Higgs•NMSSM:
•Dark SUSY with light dark photons:
▫Similar signature, but softer dimuons and missing energy
▫Either h1 or h2 (or both) can decay to a1a1, BR depends on the singlet component
▫Production cross-section for h and BR highly model dependent
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NMSSM Higgs Limits• Spin-off of the muon jet analysis
▫Use the two dimuon topology• Limit on vs BR
▫Scan over NMSSM parameter space for m(a1)<2mt
WMAP and LEP constraints applied▫Limits are blurred due to varying acceptance as
function of m(h1) and m(a1)
Following Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 075021.
• Update with ~5fb-1 of 2011 data public in ~1 week▫Very similar analysis but
isolations to suppress bb backgrounds
▫Model-independent results allowing easy future re-interpretations
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Search for Direct NMSSM a1 Production• Production via gluon fusion
▫Large cross-section if mixing with MSSM A is large Suppressed as a1 has to be highly
singlet to abide experimental constraints (cos2qA <1)
▫Usual enhancement with tanb• Search for resonances in dimuon
spectrum▫5.5<m<8.8 and 11.5<m<14 GeV
Avoid region dominated by large Upsilon backgrounds
▫Early 2011 data (1.3 fb-1) Had a dedicated very low pT di-
muon trigger (prescale = 2)
cos2qA =1
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Search for Direct NMSSM a1 Production• Analysis selections:
▫ Muon pT>5.5 GeV and |h|<2.4▫ Isolation (per muon):
• In the two signal regions, fit for the sum of Crystal Ball (signal) and a 1st order polynomial (background) ▫ Plus the radiative tail of Upsilon for the low mass region
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Search for Direct NMSSM a1 Production•No significant excesses in data•Limits vs m(a) on the production rate
▫Further interpretation in terms of cosqA and tanb
• LHC limits start superseding those from BaBar
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Summary• Several CMS analyses aiming at searches for
hidden sectors are completed▫Different scenarios for production mechanisms and
the lifetime of the new hidden bosons▫Electron channels starting gaining ground▫When possible, results presented in a quasi model
independent fashion to allow future interpretations• No discoveries, but the new ground in sensitivity
▫Important complementarity to the SM Higgs searches as the searches for exotic higgs decays can rule out many non-SM scenarios
• More analyses in the works, so stay tuned ▫A search for new light bosons from higgs decays
will be out in a week from today