HET Seminar

Abstract: 10 years after the discovery of the Higgs boson, the LHC is gearing up for two more decades of operations, during which it will evolve into a precision machine. This will allow the implementation of new strategies to search for new physics, aiming for non-resonant signals. This is the main motivation underlying the huge development in Effective Field Theory (EFT) methods that has been taking place in the past decade.
In particular, the Standard Model EFT (SMEFT) is now established as the preferred framework for non-resonant searches of heavy new particles. At the same time, non-resonant signals could also help shedding light onto quite different scenarios: in some cases, they can be produced even in the presence of light new physics, such as Axion-Like Particles (ALPs).
The talk will broadly discuss the role played by non-resonant searches in the quest for new physics, giving first an overview of the status of the SMEFT program, and presenting in the second part a concrete example of non-resonant signals induced by ALPs. The interplay with resonant/direct searches will be discussed for both cases, and I will briefly present the challenges and prospects for the upcoming LHC Run 3.