Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton–proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments—as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER—to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the high-luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity ‘dark showers’, highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.

Aims. We derive the value of the dark matter density at the Sun’s location (ρ ⊙) without fully modeling the mass distribution in the Galaxy.Methods. The proposed method relies on the local equation of centrifugal equilibrium and is independent of i) the shape of the dark matter density profile, ii) knowledge of the rotation curve from the galaxy center out to the virial radius, and iii) the uncertainties and the non-uniqueness of the bulge/disk/dark halo mass decomposition.Results. The result can be obtained in analytic form, and it explicitly includes the dependence on the relevant observational quantities and takes their uncertainties into account. By adopting the reference, state-of-the-art values for these, we find ρ ⊙ = 0.43(11)(10) GeV/cm3, where the quoted uncertainties are respectively due to the uncertainty in the slope of the circular-velocity at the Sun location and the ratio between this radius and the length scale of the stellar exponential thin disk. Conclusions. We obtained a reliable estimate of ρ ⊙, that, in addition has the merit of being ready to take any future change/improvement into account in the measures of the observational quantities it depends on.

The Large Hadron Collider has the potential to probe the scale of left-right symmetry restoration and the associated lepton number violation. Moreover, it offers the hope of measuring the right-handed leptonic mixing matrix. We show how this, together with constraints from lepton flavor violating processes, can be used to make predictions for neutrinoless double beta decay. We illustrate this connection in the case of the type-II seesaw.

We revisit the issue of the limit on the scale of left-right symmetry breaking. We focus on the minimal SU(2)L\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}SU(2)R\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1)B-L gauge theory with the seesaw mechanism and discuss the two possibilities of defining left-right symmetry as parity or charge conjugation. In the commonly adopted case of parity, we perform a complete numerical study of the quark mass matrices and the associated left and right mixing matrices without any assumptions usually made in the literature about the ratio of vacuum expectation values. We find that the usual lower limit on the mass of the right-handed gauge boson from the K mass difference, MWR>2.5\,\,TeV, is subject to a possible small reduction due to the difference between right and left Cabibbo angles. In the case of charge conjugation the limit on MWR is somewhat more robust. However, the more severe bounds from CP-violating observables are absent in this case. In fact, the free phases can also resolve the present mild discrepancy between the standard model and CP violation in the B~sector. Thus, even in the minimal case, both charged and neutral gauge bosons may be accessible at the Large Hadron Collider with spectacular signatures of lepton number violation.

This chapter of the report of the “Flavor in the era of the LHC” Workshop discusses the theoretical, phenomenological and experimental issues related to flavor phenomena in the charged lepton sector...