A General Search for New Phenomena at HERA

TL;DR

This paper conducts a comprehensive, model-independent search for deviations from the Standard Model in high-energy electron-proton collisions at HERA, analyzing all event topologies with high transverse momentum particles.

Contribution

It introduces a unified, model-independent analysis method to search for new phenomena across all event classes at HERA using the full dataset.

Findings

Most event classes agree with the Standard Model

The most significant deviation is in the jnp channel in e+p collisions

No definitive evidence of new phenomena was observed

Abstract

A model-independent search for deviations from the Standard Model prediction is performed in $e^+ p$ and $e^- p$ collisions at HERA II using all high energy data recorded by the H1 experiment. This corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 337 pb$^{-1}$. All event topologies involving isolated electrons, photons, muons, neutrinos and jets with high transverse momenta are investigated in a single analysis. Events are assigned to exclusive classes according to their final state. A statistical algorithm is used to search for deviations from the Standard Model in distributions of the scalar sum of transverse momenta or invariant mass of final state particles and to quantify their significance. A good agreement with the Standard Model prediction is observed in most of the event classes. The most siginificant deviation is found in the \mujnp channel in $e^+p$ collisions.