Searching for metastable particles using graph computing

• Main Author: Ashutosh V. Kotwal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-09-01
• Series: Scientific Reports
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97848-6

Abstract The reconstruction of charged particle trajectories at the Large Hadron Collider and future colliders relies on energy depositions in sensors placed at distances ranging from a centimeter to a meter from the colliding beams. We propose a method of detecting charged particles that decay invisibly after traversing a short distance of about 25 cm inside the experimental apparatus. One of the decay products may constitute the dark matter known to be 84% of all matter at galactic and cosmological distance scales. Our method uses graph computing to cluster spacepoints recorded by two-dimensional silicon pixel sensors into mathematically-defined patterns. The algorithm may be implemented on silicon-based integrated circuits using field-programmable gate array technology to augment or replace traditional computing platforms.