Narrow Resonances Revisited -- Simplifying Multidimensional Constraints

Abstract

As we amass more LHC data, we continue to search for new and improved methods of visualizing search results, in ways that are as model-independent as possible. The simplified limits framework is an approach developed to recast limits on searches for narrow resonances in terms of products of branching ratios (BRs) corresponding to the resonance's production and decay modes. In this work, we extend the simplified limits framework to a multidimensional parameter space of BRs, which can be used to unfold an ambiguity in the simplified parameter $\zeta$ introduced when more than one channel contributes to the production of the resonance. It is also naturally applicable to combining constraints from experimental searches with different observed final states. Constraints can be visualized in a three-dimensional space of branching ratios by employing ternary diagrams, triangle plots which utilize the inherent unitarity of the sum of the resonance's BRs. To demonstrate this new methodology, we recast constraints from recent ATLAS searches in diboson final states for spin-0, 1, and 2 narrow resonances into constraints on the resonance's width-to-mass ratio and display them in the space of relevant branching ratios. We also demonstrate how to generalize the method to cases where more than three branching ratios are relevant by using N-simplex diagrams, and we suggest a broader application of the general method to digital data sets.