Spencer Chang
UC Davis
In the standard WIMP scenario for dark matter, the LHC is expected to produce copious events where the dark matter properties can be studied. In this talk, I discuss alternative scenarios where the dark matter is in a hidden sector, whose density is generated by scattering processes of particles of the visible sector. This same process at colliders can lead to a decay of a heavy visible particle into dark matter. Interestingly, consistent with cosmology, the decay lengths can range from prompt to outside the detector, thus the vertices can appear in all parts of the LHC detectors. I will demonstrate that new nontrivial analyses sensitive to these decays are useful in many respects. In particular, observing the position and/or timing of the displaced vertices enables reconstruction of the spectra of supersymmetric models. In addition, the consistency of the cosmological picture can be tested by measuring just three observables, the mass of the dark matter and the mass and the lifetime of the particle which decays into it. Therefore, dark matter provides a strong motivation for improving sensitivity to displaced decays throughout the detector volume.
Friday, February 1, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Room L211, Technological Institute
Refreshments are served at 3:30 PM
