Vertex Displacements for Acausal Particles: Testing the Lee-Wick Standard Model at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel experimental signature for acausal effects in the Lee-Wick Standard Model, suggesting that wrong displaced vertices could be observed at the LHC as evidence of microscopic causality violation.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of wrong displaced vertices as a signature for acausal particles and analyzes their observability in the Lee-Wick Standard Model at the LHC.

Findings

Wrong vertices can be produced by Lee-Wick partners of the electron.

Measurable acausal vertex displacements are possible for masses below 450 GeV.

Monte Carlo simulations indicate potential detection at the LHC.

Abstract

We propose to search for wrong displaced vertices, where decay products of the secondary vertex move towards the primary vertex instead of away from it, as a signature for microscopic violation of causality. We analyze in detail the leptonic sector of the recently proposed Lee-Wick Standard Model, which provides a well motivated framework to study acausal effects. We find that, assuming Minimal Flavor Violation, the Lee-Wick partners of the electron, {\tilde l}^e and \tilde e, can produce measurable wrong vertices at the LHC, the most promising channel being q \bar{q} --> \bar{\tilde l}^e {\tilde l}^e --> e^+ e^- jjjj. A Monte-Carlo simulation using MadGraph/MadEvent suggests that for M_l < 450 GeV the measurement of these acausal vertex displacements should be accessible in the LHC era.