New physics searches with heavy-ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Bruce, Roderik; d'Enterria, David; de Roeck, Albert; Drewes, Marco; Farrar, Glennys R; Giammanco, Andrea; Gould, Oliver; Hajer, Jan; Harland-Lang, Lucian; Heisig, Jan

Abstract

This document summarises proposed searches for new physics accessible in the heavy-ion mode at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), both through hadronic and ultraperipheral γγ interactions, and that have a competitive or, even, unique discovery potential compared to standard proton–proton collision studies. Illustrative examples include searches for new particles—such as axion-like pseudoscalars, radions, magnetic monopoles, new long-lived particles, dark photons, and sexaquarks as dark matter candidates—as well as new interactions, such as nonlinear or non-commutative QED extensions. We argue that such interesting possibilities constitute a well-justified scientific motivation, complementing standard quark-gluon-plasma physics studies, to continue running with ions at the LHC after the Run-4, i.e. beyond 2030, including light and intermediate-mass ion species, accumulating nucleon–nucleon integrated luminosities in the accessible fb−1 range per month.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 13, 2020
• Online Publication Date: May 19, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2023
• Journal: J. Phys. G
• Print ISSN: 0954-3899
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 060501
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6471/ab7ff7
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6187509
• Publisher URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6471/ab7ff7