Particle Physics Seminar

Hidden sector or dark sector states appear in many extensions to the Standard Model, to provide a particle candidate for dark matter in universe or to explain astrophysical observations such the as positron excess observed in the cosmic radiation flux. A hidden or dark sector can be introduced with an additional U(1)d dark gauge symmetry. The discovery of the Higgs boson during Run 1 of the Large Hadron Collider opens a new and rich experimental program based on the Higgs Portal. This discovery route uses couplings to the dark sector at the Higgs level, which were not experimentally accessible before. These searches use the possible exotic decays: H -> Z Zd -> 4l and H -> Zd Zd -> 4l. Here Zd is a dark vector boson. We have experience of this search from the Run 1 period of the LHC using the ATLAS detector at CERN. These results showed (tantalizingly) two signal events where none were expected, so that in the strict criteria of High Energy Physics, the result was not yet statistically significant. The Run 1 analysis for 8 TeV collision energy is further developed in Run 2 with 13 TeV collision energy, to expand the search area, take advantage of higher statistics, a higher Higgs production cross section, and substantially better performance of the ATLAS detector. The analysis is extended to search for heavier scalars decaying to dark vector bosons.