Optimal Dark Photon Triggers and the High Mass and Same Sign Dark Photon Control Region
Session Number
PHYS 22
Advisor(s)
Dr. Peter J. Dong, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Discipline
Physical Science
Start Date
17-4-2024 10:25 AM
End Date
17-4-2024 10:40 AM
Abstract
The phenomenon of dark matter has perplexed physicists for decades, and, to find it, some physicists hypothesize a dark sector of particles. These particles interact little with Standard Model particles and have an electromagnetism like force carried by dark photons. We find that using one trigger that searches for isolated muons with pT>24GeV and another that searches for a muon with pT>27GeV and another with pT>37GeV works best for distinguishing dark photon events. With enough mass (we use samples of 0.3-4GeV), it should decay into a tightly collimated pair of leptons, called a lepton jet. A high mass (>10 GeV) filter and a same sign filter is used on these lepton jets to create a control region that a much higher proportion of background (Drell-Yan) events, which look much like a dark photon event, are categorized into than real dark photon events. About 98.8% of signal events fall into the signal region as opposed to only about 29.6% of background events. We hope that behaviors in this control region can be extrapolated to make a data driven estimate of the QCD background.
Optimal Dark Photon Triggers and the High Mass and Same Sign Dark Photon Control Region
The phenomenon of dark matter has perplexed physicists for decades, and, to find it, some physicists hypothesize a dark sector of particles. These particles interact little with Standard Model particles and have an electromagnetism like force carried by dark photons. We find that using one trigger that searches for isolated muons with pT>24GeV and another that searches for a muon with pT>27GeV and another with pT>37GeV works best for distinguishing dark photon events. With enough mass (we use samples of 0.3-4GeV), it should decay into a tightly collimated pair of leptons, called a lepton jet. A high mass (>10 GeV) filter and a same sign filter is used on these lepton jets to create a control region that a much higher proportion of background (Drell-Yan) events, which look much like a dark photon event, are categorized into than real dark photon events. About 98.8% of signal events fall into the signal region as opposed to only about 29.6% of background events. We hope that behaviors in this control region can be extrapolated to make a data driven estimate of the QCD background.