Hunting for elusive dark sectors at the LHC

• Ennio Salvioni (CERN/University of Padua)

Hidden sectors that comprise new strong interactions, but interact feebly with the Standard Model, are a broadly motivated possibility for new physics. In particular, a new confining sector at scales between hundreds of MeV and tens of GeV may hold the key to outstanding theoretical questions, such as the naturalness of the weak scale or the dark matter puzzle. The LHC plays a critical role in probing these scenarios, yet the associated signatures generically require targeted strategies, ranging from prompt decays involving low-pT objects, to long-lived particle signals. Taking as case in point a dark QCD coupled to the visible sector through the Higgs and Z portals, I will discuss several searches where important progress could be achieved, and review some related theoretical developments.

Real-time analysis for low-mass resonances at the LHC

• Caterina Doglioni (University of Geneva)

The Large Hadron Collider collides protons up to 30 million times a second, and provides its experiments with an enormous amount of data. The trigger systems of each experiment quickly analyse and decide whether to retain each of those collision events from the LHC for further analysis, on a timescale of the order of milliseconds. In this seminar, I will presents an overview of the tools and real-time analysis techniques employed within these trigger systems, focusing on the ATLAS experiment but also outlining elements of the strategies of the CMS and LHCb experiments. I will also present physics cases that use novel techniques to make the most of LHC data with a sensitivity that would not be achievable with standard techniques. A notable case is that of low-mass resonance searches with physics objects reconstructed and analyzed directly within the trigger system. Finally, I will give an overview of the interconnections of these real-time analysis techniques to other fields of research and industry.

Discussion