Abstract
Many models beyond the Standard Model predict light and feebly interacting particles that are often long-lived. These long-lived particles (LLPs) in many cases can be produced from meson decays. In this work, we propose a simple and quick reinterpretation method for models predicting LLPs produced from meson decays. With the method, we are not required to run Monte-Carlo simulation, implement detector geometries and efficiencies, or apply experimental cuts in an event analysis, as typically done in recasting and reinterpretation works. The main ingredients our method requires are only the theoretical input, allowing for computation of the production and decay rates of the LLPs. There are two conditions for the method to work: firstly, the LLPs in the models considered should be produced from a set of mesons with similar mass and lifetime (or the same meson) and second, the LLPs should, in general, have a lab-frame decay length much larger than the distance between the interaction point and the detector. As an example, we use this method to reinterpret exclusion bounds on heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) in the minimal “3+1” scenario, into those for HNLs in the general effective-field-theory framework as well as for axion-like particles. We are able to reproduce existing results, and obtain new bounds via reinterpretation of past experimental results, in particular, from CHARM and Belle.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Juan Carlos Helo and Abi Soffer for useful discussions. G.C. would like to thank the AHEP Group at Instituto de Física Corpuscular for hospitality offered while working on this project. This work is supported by the Spanish grants PID2020-113775GB-I00 (AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and CIPROM/2021/054 (Generalitat Valenciana). R.B. acknowledges financial support from the Generalitat Valenciana (grant ACIF/2021/052). G.C. acknowledges support from ANID FONDECYT grant No. 11220237 and ANID — Millennium Science Initiative Program ICN2019_044.
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Beltrán, R., Cottin, G., Hirsch, M. et al. Reinterpretation of searches for long-lived particles from meson decays. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 31 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)031
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)031