H. Otono

Probing Bino-Wino coannihilation at the LHC

A bstractWe study bino-wino coannihilation scenario in the so-called spread or mini-split supersymmetry. We show that, in this model, a neutral wino has a macroscopic decay length in a wide range of parameter space. This characteristic feature could be observed as a displaced vertex plus missing transverse energy event at the LHC. In this paper, we study the current constraints and future prospects on the scenario based on the displaced vertex search performed by the ATLAS collaboration. It is found that a sizable parameter region can be probed at the 8 TeV LHC run. This search strategy will considerably extend its reach at the next stage of the LHC running, and thus play a crucial role to examine a possibility of bino dark matter in the mini-split type supersymmetric models.

Higgsino dark matter or not: Role of disappearing track searches at the LHC and future colliders

Abstract Higgsino in supersymmetric standard models is known to be a promising candidate for dark matter in the Universe. Its phenomenological property is strongly affected by the gaugino fraction in the Higgsino-like state. If this is sizable, in other words, if gaugino masses are less than O ( 10 ) TeV, we may probe the Higgsino dark matter in future non-accelerator experiments such as dark matter direct searches and measurements of electric dipole moments. On the other hand, if gauginos are much heavier, then it is hard to search for Higgsino in these experiments. In this case, due to a lack of gaugino components, the mass difference between the neutral and charged Higgsinos is uniquely determined by electroweak interactions to be around 350 MeV, which makes the heavier charged state rather long-lived, with a decay length of about 1 cm. In this letter, we argue that a charged particle with a flight length of O ( 1 ) cm can be probed in disappearing-track searches if we require only two hits in the pixel detector. Even in this case, we can reduce background events with the help of the displaced-vertex reconstruction technique. We study the prospects of this search strategy at the LHC and future colliders for the Higgsino dark matter scenario. It is found that an almost pure Higgsino is indeed within the reach of the future 33 TeV collider experiments. We then discuss that the interplay among collider and non-accelerator experiments plays a crucial role in testing the Higgsino dark matter scenarios. Our strategy for disappearing-track searches can also enlarge the discovery potential of pure wino dark matter as well as other electroweak-charged dark matter candidates.

Development of time projection chamber for precise neutron lifetime measurement using pulsed cold neutron beams

Abstract A new time projection chamber (TPC) was developed for neutron lifetime measurement using a pulsed cold neutron spallation source at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). Managing considerable background events from natural sources and the beam radioactivity is a challenging aspect of this measurement. To overcome this problem, the developed TPC has unprecedented features such as the use of polyether-ether-ketone plates in the support structure and internal surfaces covered with 6 Li-enriched tiles to absorb outlier neutrons. In this paper, the design and performance of the new TPC are reported in detail.

Cornering compressed gluino at the LHC

A bstractWe discuss collider search strategies of gluinos which are highly degenerate with the lightest neutralino in mass. This scenario is fairly difficult to probe with conventional search strategies at colliders, and thus may provide a hideaway of supersymmetry. Moreover, such a high degeneracy plays an important role in dark matter physics as the relic abundance of the lightest neutralino is significantly reduced via coannihilation. In this paper, we discuss ways of uncovering this scenario with the help of longevity of gluinos; if the mass difference between the lightest neutralino and gluino is ≲ 100 GeV and squarks are heavier than gluino, then the decay length of the gluino tends to be of the order of the detector-size scale. Such gluinos can be explored in the searches of displaced vertices, disappearing tracks, and anomalously large energy deposit by (meta)stable massive charged particles. We find that these searches are complementary to each other, and by combining their results we may probe a wide range of the compressed gluino region in the LHC experiments.

Extending the LHC reach for new physics with sub-millimeter displaced vertices

Abstract Particles with a sub-millimeter decay length appear in many models of physics beyond the Standard Model. However, their longevity has been often ignored in their LHC searches and they have been regarded as promptly-decaying particles. In this letter, we show that, by requiring displaced vertices on top of the event selection criteria used in the ordinary search strategies for promptly-decaying particles, we can considerably extend the LHC reach for particles with a decay length of ≳ 100 μm . We discuss a way of reconstructing sub-millimeter displaced vertices by exploiting the same technique used for the primary vertex reconstruction on the assumption that the metastable particles are always pair-produced and their decay products contain high- p T jets. We show that, by applying a cut based on displaced vertices on top of standard kinematical cuts for the search of new particles, the LHC reach can be significantly extended if the decay length is ≳ 100 μm . In addition, we may measure the lifetime of the target particle through the reconstruction of displaced vertices, which plays an important role in understanding the new physics behind the metastable particles.

Searching for metastable particles with sub-millimeter displaced vertices at hadron colliders

A bstractA variety of new-physics models predict metastable particles whose decay length is ≲ 1 mm. Conventional displaced-vertex searches are less sensitive to this sub-millimeter decay range, and thus such metastable particles have been looked for only in usual prompt decay searches. In this paper, we show that an additional event-selection cut based on the vertex reconstruction using charged tracks considerably improves the sensitivity of ordinary searches which rely only on kinematic selection criteria, for particles with a decay length of ≳ 100 μm. To that end, we consider a metastable gluino as an example, and study the impact of this new event-selection cut on gluino searches at the LHC by simulating both the signal and Standard Model background processes. Uncertainty of the displaced-vertex reconstruction due to the limited resolution of track reconstruction is taken into account. We also discuss possibilities for optimization of the kinematic selection criteria, which takes advantage of significant reduction of background through the requirement of displaced vertices. In addition, we demonstrate that using the method discussed in this paper it is possible to measure the lifetime of metastable particles with an O1

Precision neutron flux measurement with a neutron beam monitor

\mathcal{O}(1)

Search for long-lived, massive particles in events with displaced vertices and missing transverse momentum in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

accuracy at the high-luminosity LHC. Implications for a future 100 TeV collider are also studied, where produced particles tend to be more boosted and thus it is easier to detect the longevity of metastable particles.