The CLIC potential for new physics

TL;DR

The paper discusses the potential of the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) for advancing particle physics, focusing on precision measurements of the Higgs and top quark, and exploring its capability to discover new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Contribution

It provides an overview of CLIC's design, staged operation, and recent results demonstrating its sensitivity to diverse BSM physics scenarios, highlighting its discovery potential.

Findings

High sensitivity to extended scalar sectors and dark matter scenarios.

Potential to discover new particles up to the kinematic limit.

Indirect searches extend sensitivity to energy scales around 100 TeV.

Abstract

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a mature option for a future electron-positron collider operating at centre-of-mass energies of up to 3 TeV. It incorporates a novel two-beam acceleration technique offering accelerating gradient of up to 100 MeV/m. CLIC would be built and operated in a staged approach with three centre-of-mass energy stages currently assumed to be 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV, and 3 TeV. The first CLIC stage will be focused on precision Higgs and top quark measurements. The so called "Higgs-strahlung" process ($e^+ e^- \to \mathrm{ZH}$) is a key for a model independent measurement of Higgs boson decays and extraction of its couplings. Precision top quark measurements will include the pair-production threshold scan, which is assumed to be the most precise method for the top-quark mass determination. The two subsequent energy stages will allow for extended Standard Model studies, including the direct measurement of the Higgs self-coupling and the top Yukawa coupling, but their main goals will be to search for signatures of Beyond the Standard Model phenomena. Presented in this contribution is a selection of recent results showing sensitivity of CLIC experiment to diverse BSM physics scenarios. Compared with hadron colliders, the low background conditions at CLIC provide extended discovery potential, in particular for the production through electroweak and/or Higgs boson interactions. This includes scenarios with extended scalar sectors, also motivated by dark matter, which can be searched for using associated production processes or cascade decays involving electroweak gauge bosons. In a wide range of models, new particles can be discovered almost up to the kinematic limit while the indirect search sensitivity extends up to ${\cal{O}}(100)$ TeV scales.