The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, located at CERN in Switzerland. It is designed to collide protons at high energies, allowing scientists to study the fundamental building blocks of matter and the forces that govern them. One of the main goals of the LHC is to search for new particles and phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the known particles and their interactions.
One such search is being conducted by the Forward Search Experiment (FASER), a new detector installed at the LHC in 2018. FASER is designed to search for long-lived particles that may be produced in the collisions of protons, but travel a short distance before decaying into other particles. These particles are difficult to detect using traditional detectors, as they typically do not interact strongly with matter and may only produce a small number of particles when they decay.
One class of long-lived particles that FASER is searching for are dark photons, also known as U(1) gauge bosons. Dark photons are hypothetical particles that interact with dark matter, which is believed to make up most of the matter in the universe but does not interact with light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Dark photons are predicted by some theories beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry and extra dimensions.
If dark photons exist, they could be produced in the collisions of protons at the LHC and travel a short distance before decaying into other particles, such as electrons and positrons. FASER is designed to detect these particles by measuring their energy and direction of travel, as well as the energy and direction of any other particles produced in their decay. By studying these events, scientists can search for evidence of dark photons and test theories beyond the Standard Model.
Another class of long-lived particles that FASER is searching for are neutrinos, which are known to exist but are difficult to detect due to their weak interactions with matter. Neutrinos are produced in the collisions of protons at the LHC, but typically pass through matter without interacting. However, if a neutrino interacts with a nucleus in the FASER detector, it can produce a charged particle that can be detected.
FASER is designed to detect these charged particles and measure their energy and direction of travel, allowing scientists to study the properties of neutrinos and test theories beyond the Standard Model. For example, some theories predict the existence of sterile neutrinos, which do not interact with matter except through gravity. If sterile neutrinos exist, they could be produced in the collisions of protons at the LHC and travel a short distance before decaying into other particles, which could be detected by FASER.
Overall, FASER’s search for dark photons and neutrinos is an important part of the LHC’s mission to explore the fundamental nature of matter and the universe. By studying these elusive particles, scientists hope to uncover new physics beyond the Standard Model and shed light on some of the most fundamental questions in science.
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- Source: https://zephyrnet.com/faser-searches-for-dark-photons-at-the-lhc-and-also-finds-neutrinos-physics-world/