Search for heavy long-lived charged particles with level-1 trigger scouting data from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13.6 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for heavy long-lived charged particles at the LHC using novel level-1 trigger scouting data, setting upper limits on production cross sections and demonstrating the system's potential for future discoveries.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis method utilizing trigger scouting data without trigger selection, enhancing sensitivity to lower beta particles and proving the system's effectiveness.

Findings

Set upper limits on cross sections for heavy long-lived charged particles.

Extended sensitivity to particles with lower beta values.

Validated the use of level-1 trigger scouting data for long-lived particle searches.

Abstract

A search for heavy long-lived charged particles at the LHC is presented. Particles interacting with the CMS muon detector across several bunch crossings are searched for using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13.6 TeV collected with the CMS detector in 2024, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.7 fb$^{-1}$. This is the first search relying on the novel level-1 trigger scouting data set collected without any trigger selection, allowing correlations between bunch crossings to be analyzed. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the cross sections of several benchmark processes with pair production of heavy long-lived charged particles. Upper limits on the fiducial cross section of a heavy long-lived charged particle with $p_\mathrm{T}$ $\gt$ 500 GeV and $\lvert\eta\rvert$ $\lt$ 0.83 are also set in different ranges of $\beta=v/c$. This analysis is a crucial proof of concept for the level-1 trigger data scouting system and complements existing searches for heavy long-lived charged particles by extending the sensitivity to lower $\beta$ values.