arXiv subjects

Maksym Ovchynnikov

Publications and source records attributed to Maksym Ovchynnikov.

46 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Searches for new physics at SND@LHC

SND@LHC is an approved experiment equipped to detect scattering of neutrinos produced in the far-forward direction at the LHC, and aimed to measure their properties. In addition, the detector has a potential to search for new feebly interacting particles (FIPs) that may be produced in proton-proton collisions. In this paper, we discuss FIPs signatures at SND@LHC considering two classes of particles: stable FIPs that may be detected via their scattering, and unstable FIPs that decay inside the detector. We estimate the sensitivity of SND@LHC to probe scattering of leptophobic dark matter, and to detect decays of neutrino, scalar, and vector portal particles. Finally, we also compare and qualitatively analyze the potential of SND@LHC and FASER/FASERν experiments for these searches.

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arXiv2021

Constraints from the CHARM experiment on Heavy Neutral Leptons with tau mixing

We re-analyze the results of the searches for Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) by the CHARM experiment. We study HNL decay channel $N\to e^{+}e^{-}ν/μ^{+}μ^{-}ν$ and show that, in addition to the constraints on the HNL's mixings with $ν_e$ or $ν_μ$, the same data also implies limits on the HNLs that mix only with $ν_τ$ and have masses in the range $380 \text{ MeV}<m_{N}\lesssim 1.6\text{ GeV}$ - the region in the parameter space that was considered in the literature as a target for HNLs searches.

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arXiv2021

Phenomenology of GeV-scale scalar portal

We review and revise the phenomenology of the scalar portal -- a new scalar particle with the mass in GeV range that mixes with the Higgs boson. In particular, we consider production channels $B\to S K_1(1270)$ and $B\to S K_0^*(700)$ and show that their contribution is significant. We extend the previous analysis by comparing the production of scalars from decays of mesons, of the Higgs bosons and direct production via proton bremsstrahlung, deep inelastic scattering and coherent scattering on nuclei. Relative efficiency of the production channels depends on the energy of the beam and we consider the energies of DUNE, SHiP and LHC-based experiments. We present our results in the form directly suitable for calculations of experimental sensitivities.

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arXiv2021

When FIMPs Decay into Neutrinos: The $N_\mathrm{eff}$ Story

The existence of feebly interacting massive particles (FIMPs) could have significant implications on the effective number of relativistic species $N_\mathrm{eff}$ in the early Universe. In this work, we investigate in detail how short-lived FIMPs that can decay into neutrinos affect $N_\mathrm{eff}$ and highlight the relevant effects that govern its evolution. We show that even if unstable FIMPs inject most of their energy into neutrinos, they may still decrease $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$, and identify neutrino spectral distortions as the driving power behind this effect. As a case study, we consider Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) and indicate which regions of their parameter space increase or decrease $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$. Moreover, we derive bounds on the HNL lifetime from the Cosmic Microwave Background and comment on the possible role that HNLs could play in alleviating the Hubble tension.

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arXiv2021

Improved BBN constraints on Heavy Neutral Leptons

We constrain the lifetime of thermally produced Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs) from primordial nucleosynthesis. We show that even a small fraction of mesons present in the primordial plasma leads to the over-production of the primordial helium. This puts an upper bound on the lifetime of HNLs $τ_{N}<0.02$ s for masses $m_{N}>m_π$ (as compared to 0.1 s reported previously). In combination with accelerator searches, this allows us to put a new lower bound on the HNLs masses and defining the "bottom line" for HNL searches at the future Intensity Frontier experiments.

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arXiv2020

Light scalar production from Higgs bosons and FASER 2

The most general renormalizable interaction between the Higgs sector and a new gauge-singlet scalar $S$ is governed by two interaction terms: cubic and quartic. The quartic interaction is only loosely constrained by invisible Higgs decays. Given current experimental limits about $10\%$ of all Higgs bosons created at the LHC can be converted to new scalars with the mass up to $m_{\rm Higgs}/2$. This can significantly extend the reach of the LHC-based Intensity Frontier experiments. We analyze the sensitivity of the FASER experiment to this model and discuss modest changes in the FASER 2 design that would allow to explore an orders-of-magnitude wider part of the Higgs portal's parameter space.

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arXiv2019

Probing new physics with displaced vertices: muon tracker at CMS

Long-lived particles can manifest themselves at the LHC via "displaced vertices" - several charged tracks originating from a position separated from the proton interaction point by a macroscopic distance. Here we demonstrate a potential of the muon trackers at the CMS experiment for displaced vertex searches. We use heavy neutral leptons and Chern-Simons portal as two examples of long-lived particles for which the CMS muon tracker can provide essential information about their properties.

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arXiv2019

Sensitivity of the intensity frontier experiments for neutrino and scalar portals: analytic estimates

In recent years, a number of intensity-frontier experiments have been proposed to search for feebly interacting particles with a mass in the GeV range. We show analytically how the characteristic shape of the sensitivity regions of such experiments - upper and lower boundaries of the probed region, the maximal mass reach - depends on the parameters of the experiments, taking the SHiP and the MATHUSLA experiments as an example. We find a good agreement of our estimates with the results of the Monte Carlo simulations.

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arXiv2019

Probing baryon asymmetry of the Universe at LHC and SHiP

The origin of the baryon asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) is one of the major puzzles beyond the Standard Model. Detecting the particles responsible for the generation of the BAU would enormously boost our understanding of physics of the early Universe. Here we demonstrate that searches for displaced vertices at ATLAS, CMS and LHCb allow detecting heavy neutral leptons (HNL) with parameters that can simultaneously lead to the successful generation of the BAU and explain the masses and oscillations of active neutrinos. The combination of a dedicated LHC search program and a complementary Intensity Frontier experiment (such as SHiP) will allow exploring a sizeable part of the "minimal HNL baryogenesis" parameter space.

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arXiv2015

A facility to Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $τ\to 3μ$ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals - scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the Standard Model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation

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