Discerning Secluded Sector gauge structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates models with secluded gauge sectors, analyzing how their unique gauge structures can be experimentally distinguished through particle decay signatures in e+e- collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for studying secluded gauge groups with Abelian or non-Abelian structures, focusing on their experimental signatures and distinguishability.

Findings

Abelian models produce radiative gauge bosons decaying into visible particles.

Non-Abelian models exhibit cascade decays and hadronization into new mesons.

Different communication scenarios between sectors affect observable signatures.

Abstract

New fundamental particles, charged under new gauge groups and only weakly coupled to the standard sector, could exist at fairly low energy scales. In this article we study a selection of such models, where the secluded group either contains a softly broken U(1) or an unbroken SU(N). In the Abelian case new {\gamma}v gauge bosons can be radiated off and decay back into visible particles. In the non-Abelian case there will not only be a cascade in the hidden sector, but also hadronization into new {\pi}v and {\rho}v mesons that can decay back. This framework is developed to be applicable both for e+e- and pp collisions, but for these first studies we concentrate on the former process type. For each Abelian and non-Abelian group we study three different scenarios for the communication between the standard sector and the secluded one. We illustrate how to distinguish the various characteristics of the models and especially study to what extent the underlying gauge structure can be determined experimentally.