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Joshua Lockyer

Publications and source records attributed to Joshua Lockyer.

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Semi-visible emerging jets

We propose a new class of dark-shower signatures in Standard Model extensions featuring Hidden Valleys or dark sectors coupled through an s-channel mediator. In this framework, unstable dark pions appear as long-lived particles (LLPs), with their lifetimes treated as free parameters. The resulting signatures, which we term semi-visible emerging jets (SVEJ), continuously interpolate between the established semi-visible and emerging jet regimes. We outline an analysis strategy optimized for dark pion lifetimes of order $\mathcal{O}(10)$ mm, and reinterpret existing LLP searches targeting lifetimes of $\mathcal{O}(100)$-$\mathcal{O}(1000)$ mm. Our proposed SVEJ search, exploiting the current ATLAS emerging-jet trigger, achieves sensitivity to cross sections of $\mathcal{O}(0.1)$ fb for lifetimes around $\mathcal{O}(10)$ mm. Finally, we advocate a more detailed study, including hadronization uncertainties and detector-level effects.

hep-ph

Hidden valley scenario sensitivity in the CMS muon endcap detector

We study the sensitivity of the CMS search to displaced showers arising from the decays of long-lived particles in the muon system, within the framework of Hidden Valley scenarios. To establish our simulation setup, we employ a parameterization of Hidden Valley theory space and adopt a hybrid strategy where the lifetime is treated as a free parameter to provide model-independent Hidden Valley quark production cross-section upper limits. Our results indicate that the CMS search is broadly sensitive to variations in Hidden Valley parameters such as the overall scale and relevant mass ratios, while showing comparatively weak dependence on the number of Hidden Valley colors or flavors. The exact quantitative results we derive depend on the underlying hadronization model employed and thus, we urge caution in interpreting the results. Within these limitations, we also establish model-dependent limits on the maximum strength of the mediator coupling to Hidden Valley quarks. Our approach illustrates how one can move beyond simplified model strategies by employing a first-principles-inspired theory setup, while highlighting the theoretical uncertainties inherent in modeling Hidden Valley phenomenology.

hep-ph

On the Simulation of Hidden Parton Showers in the Conformal Window

We consider confining Hidden Valley/Dark Sector theories containing many dark quark flavors. These theories are in the ``conformal window'': they reach an infrared fixed point when their quarks are massless, and have unfamiliar confinement when the quark masses are non-zero but small. Their jets of hidden hadrons may be quite different from those familiar from QCD, but their details cannot currently be simulated even qualitatively. This is partly due to the use of approximations to the two-loop running coupling in existing event generators' parton showers, which are not broadly applicable across the conformal window. We argue that the exact two-loop running coupling, and a corresponding Sudakov factor employing that coupling, must be implemented in simulation packages in order to allow phenomenological studies of these theories.

hep-ph