Measuring lifetimes of long-lived charged massive particles stopped in LHC detectors

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Oct 2;103(14):141803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.141803. Epub 2009 Oct 2.

Abstract

Long-lived charged massive particles (CHAMPs) appear in various particle physics models beyond the standard model. In this Letter, we discuss the prospects for studying the stopping and decaying events of such long-lived CHAMPs at the LHC detectors, and show that the lifetime measurement (and the study of decay products) is possible with the LHC detectors for a wide range of the lifetime O(0.1)-O(10(10)) sec, by using periods of no pp collision. Even a short lifetime of order 1 sec can be measured by (i) identifying the stopping event with the on-line event filter, (ii) immediately making a beam-dump signal which stops the pp collision of the LHC, and at the same time (iii) changing the trigger menu to optimize it for the detection of a CHAMP decay in the calorimeter. Other possibilities are also discussed.