• Energy Research

A search is presented for fractionally charged particles with charges below 1$e$, using their small energy loss in the tracking detector as a key variable to observe a signal. The analyzed dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in 2016–2018 at the CERN LHC. This is the first search at the LHC for new particles with a charge between $e$/3 and 0.9$e$, including an extension of previous results at a charge of 2$e$/3. Masses up to 640 GeV and charges as low as $e$/3 are excluded at 95% confidence level. These are the most stringent limits to date for the considered Drell-Yan-like production mode. Physical review letters 134(13), 131802 (2025). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.131802 Published by APS, College Park, Md.

Abstract A description is presented of the algorithms used to reconstruct energy deposited in the CMS hadron calorimeter during Run 2 (2015–2018) of the LHC. During Run 2, the characteristic bunch-crossing spacing for proton-proton collisions was 25 ns, which resulted in overlapping signals from adjacent crossings. The energy corresponding to a particular bunch crossing of interest is estimated using the known pulse shapes of energy depositions in the calorimeter, which are measured as functions of both energy and time. A variety of algorithms were developed to mitigate the effects of adjacent bunch crossings on local energy reconstruction in the hadron calorimeter in Run 2, and their performance is compared.

A search is presented for charged, long-lived supersymmetric particles in final states with one or more disappearing tracks. The search is based on data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC between 2016 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137  fb−1. The search is performed over final states characterized by varying numbers of jets, b-tagged jets, electrons, and muons. The length of signal-candidate tracks in the plane perpendicular to the beam axis is used to characterize the lifetimes of wino- and Higgsino-like charginos produced in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The dE/dx energy loss of signal-candidate tracks is used to increase the sensitivity to charginos with a large mass and thus a small Lorentz boost. The observed results are found to be statistically consistent with the background-only hypothesis. Limits on the pair-production cross section of gluinos and squarks are presented in the framework of simplified models of supersymmetric particle production and decay, and for electroweakino production based on models of wino and Higgsino dark matter. The limits presented are the most stringent to date for scenarios with light third-generation squarks and a wino- or Higgsino-like dark matter candidate capable of explaining the observed dark matter relic density. © 2024 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration 2024 CERN