Axion like Particle Searches and prospects of model discrimination
ABSTRACT
In recent years, axion-like particles (ALPs), which arise in many well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model(SM), have received a lot of
attention. Searching for ALPs at collider experiments, as well as in cosmological and astrophysical observations, has consequently become an
important research program. In our recent work, considering the interaction of ALPs with the SM gauge bosons through an effective Lagrangian, we
investigate the feasibility of searching for ALPs at the LHC in association with a gauge boson(W/Z), focusing on the diphoton decay mode of ALPs.
By analyzing the Lorentz structure of the ALP–gauge-boson interactions, we identify characteristic polarization patterns of the associated gauge bosons
that differ significantly from those produced in association with the SM Higgs boson and from relevant other SM backgrounds. We will demonstrate
how this characteristic polarization structure of the gauge boson produced in association with an ALP provides a powerful discriminator between
competing models that can lead to an experimentally similar V+2 phtonons final state. In particular, these polarization-sensitive observables can help
distinguish an ALP signal from a CP-even scalar resonance, thereby providing information beyond the observation of a diphoton resonance alone.
