Constraints on axion-like particles via associated diboson production in hadronic collisions

TL;DR

This paper assesses how current and future hadron colliders can detect axion-like particles through diboson production, providing constraints on their couplings and highlighting the LHC's potential in the sub-GeV mass range.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of ALP production mechanisms and backgrounds, deriving new four-dimensional constraints on ALP couplings in a linear effective field theory framework.

Findings

High-luminosity LHC can probe ALP couplings in the sub-GeV mass range.

Jet misidentification rates significantly impact background estimates.

Constraints on ALP couplings to gluons, weak bosons, and photons are derived.

Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity of current and future hadron-collider experiments to axion-like particles (ALPs) through associated diboson production, focusing on a linear effective field theory framework with bosonic ALP couplings. We analyze the dominant production mechanisms and relevant backgrounds, considering the impact of jet misidentification rates on the diboson background. We present our results using conservative jet-misidentification rates, and derive four dimensional constraints on the ALP couplings to gluons, weak bosons, and photons. Our findings highlight the potential of the high-luminosity phase of the CERN Large Hadron Collider to probe the ALP parameter space in the sub-GeV mass range, as well as the codependencies of the various ALP couplings.