Optimizing Trigger-Level Track Reconstruction for Sensitivity to Exotic Signatures

TL;DR

This paper evaluates trigger-level track reconstruction techniques at the HL-LHC to improve detection of unconventional long-lived particle signatures, providing recommendations for hardware tracking system parameters.

Contribution

It introduces optimized trigger strategies for detecting diverse exotic signatures, guiding the development of hardware-based tracking systems at the HL-LHC.

Findings

Enhanced trigger sensitivity to long-lived particles

Recommendations for hardware tracking system parameters

Improved detection of unconventional signatures

Abstract

Many compelling beyond the Standard Model scenarios predict signals that result in unconventional charged particle trajectories. Signatures for which unusual tracks are the most conspicuous feature of the event pose significant challenges for experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), particularly for the trigger. This article presents a study of track-based triggers for a representative set of long-lived and unconventional signatures at the upcoming High Luminosity LHC, as well as resulting recommendations for the target parameters of a hardware-based tracking system. Scenarios studied include large multiplicities of low momentum tracks produced in a soft-unclustered-energy-pattern model, displaced leptons and anomalous prompt tracks predicted in a Supersymmetry model with long-lived staus, and displaced hadrons predicted in a Higgs portal scenario with long-lived scalars.