https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-08763-5
Regular Article – Experimental Physics
Model-independent approach for incorporating interference effects in collider searches for new resonances
1
INFN, Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146, Genoa, Italy
2
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de physique nucléaire et de hautes énergies (LPNHE-IN2P3), Paris, France
3
ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics and CSSM, School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
4
Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Received:
18
September
2020
Accepted:
13
December
2020
Published online:
21
December
2020
The presence of large-mass resonances in the data collected at the Large Hadron Collider would provide direct evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. A key challenge in current resonance searches at the LHC is the modelling of signal–background interference effects, which can severely distort the shape of the reconstructed invariant mass distribution relative to the case where there is no interference. Such effects are strongly dependent on the beyond the Standard Model theory that must be considered as unknown if one aims to minimise any theoretical bias on the search results. In this paper, we describe a procedure which employs a physically-motivated, model-independent template functional form that can be used to model interference effects, both for the characterisation of positive discoveries, and in the presentation of null results. We illustrate the approach with the example of a scalar resonance decaying into a pair of photons.
© The Author(s) 2020
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