Speaker
Description
This is the first-ever search for Long-Lived Particles (LLPs) produced by atmospheric muons at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a state-of-the-art neutrino telescope located 2 km below the South Pole ice. IceCube’s kilometer-scale detector, optimized for astrophysical neutrino detection, also provides an opportunity for particle physics searches for unique signatures in an unexplored energy regime.
Atmospheric muons, disregarded as background in most IceCube analyses, continuously reach the detector at a rate on the order of kilohertz. These muons could produce LLPs via an exotic muon–nucleus bremsstrahlung-like scattering. These LLPs would travel undetected for some distance and subsequently decay back into Standard Model particles, creating a distinct “dark gap”—a segment without Cherenkov light in the otherwise bright muon track. Identifying these rare signatures within the sparse detector geometry is a significant challenge, akin to finding a needle in a haystack, but provides a probe into new physics scenarios involving feebly interacting particles with long lifetimes.
This analysis, being the first of its kind, will complement collider-based searches by probing long decay lengths in a large, naturally thick detector medium, offering a novel window into feebly interacting new physics.
