arXiv subjects

Herbi K. Dreiner

Publications and source records attributed to Herbi K. Dreiner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The ABC of RPV III: Classification of R-parity Violating Signatures from LQD Couplings and their Coverage at the LHC

We consider the R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (RPV-MSSM) with its wide range of signatures as a test model for the coverage of beyond the Standard Model searches at the LHC. Here we present a systematic study of the phenomenological and experimental status of specifically the R-parity violating $LQ\bar D$ operators, as the third study in the ABC of RPV series, following our previous analyses of the $LL\bar E$ and $\bar U\bar D\bar D$ operators. We classify the distinct collider signatures for all possible LSPs and for eight representative $LQ\bar D$ couplings, considering both direct LSP production and production through gauge cascades. Assuming one non-zero $LQ\bar D$ coupling at a time, we assess the current LHC coverage using ATLAS and CMS searches implemented in $\texttt{CheckMATE 2}$, and identify recent searches relevant for future recasting. We find substantial sensitivity to the colored sector, while gaps remain for wino- and higgsino-like LSPs for couplings involving $τ$ leptons, when the LSP is the only sparticle within the LHC kinematic limit. Slepton LSPs remain unconstrained in their direct production at the LHC, although some sensitivity is found for slepton NLSPs with a bino-like LSP. These results highlight gaps in the $\texttt{CheckMATE 2}$ search database, as well as the need for targeted LHC searches for specific $LQ\bar D$ signatures.

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arXiv2026

Colliders are not Testing Locality via Bell's Inequality nor Providing an Unconditional Proof of Entanglement

Recently there has been an increased interest in possible tests of locality via Bell's inequalities, as well as separately tests of entanglement at colliders, in particular at the LHC. These have involved various physical processes, such as $t\bar t$, or $τ^+τ^-$ production, or the decay of a Higgs boson to two vector bosons $H\to VV^*$. We argue that $\textit{none}$ of these proposals constitute a test of locality via Bell's inequality or promise unconditional observational evidence of entanglement. In all cases what is measured are the momenta of the final state particles. Using the construction proposed by Kasday (1971) in a different context, and adapted to collider scenarios by Abel, Dittmar, and Dreiner (1992), it is straightforward to construct a local hidden variable theory (LHVT) which exactly reproduces the data. This construction is only possible as the final state momenta all commute. We show that this LHVT satisfies Bell's inequality or the related CHSH inequality as appropriate for all the proposed LHC collider tests in the literature. Thus a test of locality via Bell's inequality is not possible at colliders. The LHVT is also by construction local, $\textit{i.e.}$ all correlations are separable. Thus an unconditional proof of entanglement is also inherently $\textit{not}$ possible at colliders. It can only be shown that the entanglement within the Standard Model consistently describes the data.

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arXiv2026

Proposal for a shared transverse LLP detector for FCC-ee and FCC-hh and a forward LLP detector for FCC-hh

As the particle physics community has explored most of the conventional avenues for new physics, the more elusive areas are becoming increasingly appealing. One such potential region, where new physics might be hiding, involves light and weakly interacting long-lived particles (LLPs). To probe deeper into this region, where the possibility of highly displaced scenarios weakens the role of general-purpose collider detectors, dedicated LLP detectors are our best option. However, their potential can only be fully realized if we optimize their position and dimensions to suit our physics goals. This is possible at the upcoming Future Circular Collider (FCC) facility, where the feasibility and design studies are still ongoing and can accommodate new proposals focused specifically on LLP searches. We propose optimized dedicated detectors in both the transverse and forward directions, DELIGHT and FOREHUNT, significantly enhancing the sensitivity to previously uncharted regions of the new physics parameter space. Our proposed DELIGHT detector can additionally serve as a shared transverse detector during both the FCC-ee and FCC-hh runs. The concept of a shared transverse detector is novel and sustainable, utilizing the same interaction points of the lepton and hadron colliders at the FCC. This minimizes costs and boosts the LLP physics case at the FCC.

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arXiv2026

The Single Photon Signature of a Light Long-lived Neutralino at Remote Detectors at the LHC

We investigate the phenomenology of light long-lived neutralinos in R-parity violating supersymmetric models, focusing on the proposed remote detectors $\texttt{ANUBIS}$, $\texttt{CODEX-b}$, $\texttt{FACET}$, $\texttt{FASER}$, $\texttt{FASER2}$, $\texttt{MAPP}$, $\texttt{MAPP2}$, and $\texttt{MATHUSLA}$ at the LHC. We assume the production of the neutralinos at the ATLAS or CMS interaction points via rare scalar meson decays induced by R-parity violating couplings. We study six supersymmetric R-parity violating benchmark scenarios in which the dominant neutralino decay is $\tildeχ^0_1 \rightarrow γ+ ν$. For each scenario, we determine the projected search sensitivity at the above listed detectors. Extending previous work focused primarily on $\texttt{FASER}$ and $\texttt{FASER2}$, we improve the simulation by taking into account the extended flight path of the parent meson. We find that $\texttt{ANUBIS}$ provides the best sensitivity to our benchmark scenarios and $\texttt{FASER}$ the least among the considered experiments, while of course $\texttt{FASER}$ has already taken data.

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arXiv2026

Long-lived Light Mediators in a Higgs Portal Model at the FCC-ee

In the search for beyond the Standard Model (SM) physics, long-lived particles (LLPs) have emerged as potential candidates and are being explored in various ongoing experiments. Future lepton colliders, such as the FCC-ee, shall provide an excellent opportunity to probe LLPs, owing to their clean environment and improved particle identification. This study investigates the potential of the proposed \textbf{I}nnovative \textbf{D}etector for an \textbf{E}lectron-Positron \textbf{A}ccelerator (IDEA) detector at FCC-ee in the detection of LLPs produced from $B$-meson and Higgs boson decays. We explore benchmark scenarios for different final states resulting from LLP decays, including a detailed analysis of the SM long-lived hadronic background. Additionally, we propose dedicated LLP detectors with different configurations, dimensions, and locations with respect to the IDEA detector. DELIGHT B, originally proposed as a dedicated LLP detector for the FCC-hh, stands out as the detector with the maximum efficiency for detecting LLPs produced at FCC-ee. We find that cylindrical detector configurations, if feasible to construct around the IDEA detector, would also enhance sensitivity for LLPs mostly decaying outside it.

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arXiv2025

A critical appraisal of tests of locality and of entanglement versus non-entanglement at colliders

It has been argued more than 30 years ago that it is not possible to test locality at colliders, due to the inability to directly measure non-commutating observables such as spin components in current collider experiments. Recently, there has been a lot of phenomenological and experimental activity around testing locality via Bell-type experiments or entanglement versus non-entanglement in a collider environment. These results seem to evade the earlier no-go theorem by indirectly measuring spin correlations via their relation to angular correlations between momenta. We perform a careful study of the feasibility of such an approach. We scrutinize the relationship between spin and angular correlations in both quantum mechanics and local hidden variable theories. Our conclusion is that it is currently not possible to perform a logically coherent set of experimental measurements at colliders that would allow one to test locality or entanglement versus non-entanglement. This reaffirms the earlier no-go theorem. We stress that the no-go theorem does not apply to measurements of observables inspired from entanglement and Quantum Information Theory to test the Standard Model of particle physics.

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arXiv2025

The ABC of RPV II: Classification of R-parity Violating Signatures from UDD Couplings and their Coverage at the LHC

We perform a detailed study of the current phenomenological status of baryon number violating operators within the framework of the $R$-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (RPV-MSSM). This study aims to identify any gaps in the experimental coverage of the RPV landscape. We identify the unique final states for all possible LSPs decaying via four different benchmark UDD operators. Both the direct production of the LSP and its production via gauge-cascades are considered. For each LSP, we assume that only one UDD coupling is non-zero at a time and confront the signals with existing ATLAS and CMS searches implemented in the recasting framework \texttt{CheckMATE\;2}. We find that the UDD colored LSP sector is well covered with the mass bounds on the gluino LSP being the strongest, and with possible improvements for some of the right-handed squark LSPs. We also point out that there is limited coverage for electroweakino and slepton LSPs with UDD decays. This limitation may be due to the lack of targeted experimental searches for these specific final states or the appropriate recasting of existing searches.

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arXiv2025

Probing light sterile neutrinos in left-right symmetric models with displaced vertices and neutrinoless double beta decay

An investigation of relatively light (GeV-scale), long-lived right-handed neutrinos is performed within minimal left-right symmetric models using the neutrino-extended Standard Model Effective Field Theory framework. Light sterile neutrinos can be produced through rare decays of kaons, $D$-mesons, and $B$-mesons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) of Fermilab. Their decays could result in displaced vertices, which can be reconstructed. By performing Monte-Carlo simulations, we assess the sensitivities of the future LHC far-detector experiments ANUBIS, CODEX-b, FACET, FASER(2), MoEDAL-MAPP1(2), MATHUSLA, the recently approved beam-dump experiment SHiP, and the upcoming neutrino experiment DUNE at the LBNF, to the right-handed gauge-boson mass $M_{W_R}$ as functions of neutrino masses. We find that DUNE and SHiP could be sensitive to right-handed gauge-boson masses up to $\sim 25$ TeV. We compare this reach to indirect searches such as neutrinoless double beta decay, finding that displaced-vertex searches are very competitive.

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arXiv2024

Light long-lived particles at the FCC-hh with the proposal for a dedicated forward detector FOREHUNT and a transverse detector DELIGHT

In this paper, we propose a dedicated forward detector, FOREHUNT (FORward~Experiment~for~HUNdred~TeV), for 100 TeV FCC-hh for the detection of light long-lived particles (LLP) coming from $B$-meson decay. We calculate the signal acceptance as a function of mass and proper decay length of the LLP for 100 TeV and interpret our result in terms of model parameters for models of dark Higgs scalar and heavy neutral leptons. We also compare the sensitivity with proposed transverse detectors like MATHUSLA, CODEX-b for HL-LHC, and DELIGHT (Detector for long-lived particles at high energy of 100 TeV) for FCC-hh. Our analysis reveals that if the LLP is light ($\lesssim 4.4$ GeV) and has a low proper decay length ($<10$ m), a forward detector like FOREHUNT is the best option to look for the decaying LLP, while DELIGHT is preferable for higher proper decay lengths.

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arXiv2024

A Novel Proton Decay Signature at DUNE, JUNO, and Hyper-K

Proton decay, although unobserved so far, is a natural expectation when attempting to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe. $p\to K^+\barν$ or $p\to K^+\tildeχ_1^0$, with $\tildeχ_1^0$ a light exotic neutral particle, represent possible decay channels achievable in models of physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the MSSM with trilinear R-parity-violating terms, or the Standard Model extended by a heavy neutral lepton. Among the decay products of these modes, the neutral fermions would typically appear as missing energy in collider searches. The present study considers how such decay modes could be differentiated in experimental settings, as the exotic $\tildeχ_1^0$ may further decay if it is not protected by a symmetry (such as R-parity in the MSSM). We assess the detection prospects of the proposed experiments DUNE, JUNO and Hyper-K in this context.

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arXiv2023

Long-lived neutral fermions at the DUNE near detector

At the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a proton beam hits a fixed target leading to large production rates of mesons. These mesons can decay and potentially provide a source of long-lived neutral fermions. Examples of such long-lived fermions are heavy neutral leptons which can mix with the standard-model active neutrinos, and the bino-like lightest neutralino in R-parity-violating supersymmetry. We show that the Standard Model Effective Field Theory extended with right-handed singlet neutrinos can simultaneously describe heavy neutral leptons and bino-like neutralinos in a unified manner. We use the effective-field-theory framework to determine the sensitivity reach of the DUNE near detector in probing various scenarios of long-lived neutral fermions.

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arXiv2023

Recasting Bounds on Long-lived Heavy Neutral Leptons in Terms of a Light Supersymmetric R-parity Violating Neutralino

In R-parity-violating (RPV) supersymmetric models, light neutralinos with masses from the GeV-scale down to even zero are still allowed by all laboratory constraints. They are further consistent with dark matter observations, as they decay via RPV couplings. These RPV couplings are in general constrained to be small. Hence, such light neutralinos, if produced, e.g., at a beam-dump or collider experiment, appear as displaced vertices or missing energy at the detector level. The same signatures have been extensively searched for at various experiments in the theoretical context of sterile neutrinos which mix with active neutrinos. In this work, we recast the sensitivity of both past and present experiments to sterile neutrinos to obtain new bounds on RPV couplings associated with a light neutralino. We find experiments such as T2K, BEBC, FASER, DUNE, and MoEDAL-MAPP can improve the current bounds on RPV couplings by up to $3-4$ orders of magnitude in several benchmark scenarios.

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arXiv2023

The ABC of RPV: Classification of R-Parity Violating Signatures at the LHC for Small Couplings

We perform a classification of all potential supersymmetric $R$-parity violating signatures at the LHC to address the question: are existing bounds on supersymmetric models robust, or are there still signatures not covered by existing searches, allowing LHC-scale supersymmetry to be hiding? We analyze all possible scenarios with one dominant RPV trilinear coupling at a time, allowing for arbitrary LSPs and mass spectra. We consider direct production of the LSP, as well as production via gauge-cascades, and find 6 different experimental signatures for the $LL\bar E$-case, 6 for the $LQ\bar D$-case, and 5 for the $\bar U\bar D\bar D$-case; together these provide complete coverage of the RPV-MSSM landscape. This set of signatures is confronted with the existing searches by \texttt{ATLAS} and \texttt{CMS}. We find all signatures have been covered at the LHC, although not at the sensitivity level needed to probe the direct production of all LSP types. For the case of a dominant $LL\bar E$-operator, we use \texttt{CheckMATE} to quantify the current lower bounds on the supersymmetric masses and find the limits to be comparable to or better than the $R$-parity conserving case. Our treatment can be easily extended to scenarios with more than one non-zero RPV coupling.

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arXiv2023

Lepton PDFs and Multipurpose Single Lepton Searches at the LHC

A final state consisting of one charged lepton, at least one jet, and little missing transverse energy can be a very promising signature of new physics at the LHC across a wide range of models. However, it has received only limited attention so far. In this work we discuss the potential sensitivity of this channel to various new physics scenarios. To demonstrate our point, we consider its application to lepton parton density functions (PDFs) at the LHC in the context of supersymmetry. These lepton PDFs can lead to resonant squark production (similar to leptoquarks) via lepton number violating couplings present in R-parity Violating Supersymmetry (RPV-SUSY). Unlike leptoquarks, in RPV-SUSY there are many possible decay modes leading to a wide range of signatures. We propose two generic search regions: (a) A single first or second generation charged lepton, exactly 1 jet and low missing transverse energy, and (b) A single first or second generation charged lepton, at least 3 jets, and low missing transverse energy. We demonstrate that together these cover a large range of RPV-SUSY signatures, and have the potential to perform better than existing low-energy bounds, while being general enough to extend to a wide range of possible models hitherto not explored at the LHC.

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arXiv2023

Searching for a Single Photon from Lightest Neutralino Decays in R-parity-violating Supersymmetry at FASER

In this work, we propose a search for a single photon at \texttt{FASER} and \texttt{FASER2}, produced from decays of bino-like, sub-GeV lightest neutralinos in the theoretical framework of the R-parity-violating (RPV) Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We consider a list of representative benchmark scenarios with one or two non-vanishing RPV couplings. The photon has an energy $\mathcal{O}\left(0.1\right)-\mathcal{O}\left(1\right)$ TeV. We find a sensitivity reach for RPV couplings beyond the current bounds by orders of magnitude at \texttt{FASER} and \texttt{FASER2}.

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arXiv2022

A $ν$ Approach to Analyzing Neutrino Data in the $\mathbf{R}$-Parity-Violating MSSM

The $R$-parity-violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (RPV-MSSM) can naturally accommodate massive neutrinos as required by the oscillation data. However, studying the phenomenology is complicated due to the large number of undetermined parameters involved. Thus, studies are usually restricted to specific submodels. In this work, we develop an approach that allows us to be less restrictive. Working in (almost) the completely general RPV-MSSM setting, we analyze the structure of the neutrino mass matrix, and identify -- for the case of two massive neutrinos -- only four minimal classes of structures that can solve the neutrino data; we call these Minimal Oscillation Models (MOMs). We study the general features of each MOM class, and present numerical fits to the oscillation data. Our approach allows us to study all RPV models satisfying the neutrino data in a unified manner, as long as they satisfy the MOM criteria. Through several examples, we show that this indeed holds for many interesting scenarios.

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arXiv2022

Long-lived Sterile Neutrinos at Belle II in Effective Field Theory

Large numbers of $τ$ leptons are produced at Belle II. These could potentially decay into sterile neutrinos that, for the mass range under consideration, are typically long-lived, leading to displaced-vertex signatures. Here, we study a displaced-vertex search sterile-neutrino-extended Standard Model Effective Field Theory. The production and decay of the sterile neutrinos can be realized via either the standard active-sterile neutrino mixing or higher-dimensional operators in the effective Lagrangian. We perform Monte-Carlo simulations to estimate the Belle II sensitivities to such interactions. We find that Belle II can probe non-renormalizable dimension-six operators involving a single sterile neutrino up to a few TeV in the new-physics scale.

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arXiv2022

Decays of a bino-like particle in the low-mass regime

We study the phenomenology associated with a light bino-like neutralino with mass under the tau mass in the context of the R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. This is a well-motivated example of scenarios producing potentially light and long-lived exotic particles, which might be testable in far-detector experiments, such as the FASER experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. A quantitative assessment of the discovery potential or the extraction of limits run through a detailed understanding of the interactions of the light exotic fermion with Standard Model matter, in particular, the hadronic sector. Here, we propose a systematic analysis of the decays of such a particle and proceed to a model-independent derivation of the low-energy effects, so that this formalism may be transposed to other UV-completions or even stand as an independent effective field theory. We then stress the diversity of the possible phenomenology and more specifically discuss the features associated with the R-parity violating supersymmetric framework, for example neutron-antineutron oscillations.

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