Dark sector showers and hadronisation in Herwig 7

Area of Science:

• High Energy Physics
• Particle Physics
• Cosmology

Background:

• Hidden Valley scenarios propose strongly interacting dark sectors beyond the Standard Model.
• Simulating these sectors requires specialized tools to model particle interactions and decays.
• Understanding dark sector physics is crucial for explaining dark matter and cosmic structure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel simulation of strongly interacting dark sectors using Herwig 7.
• To analyze the impact of dark sector parameters on observable event shapes.
• To investigate correlation functions for probing dark sector event structures.

Main Methods:

• Utilized angular ordered showers and the cluster hadronisation model within Herwig 7.
• Implemented a simulation framework for Hidden Valley scenarios.
• Performed benchmark studies varying dark sector parameters.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the effect of parameter variations on thrust and angularities within the dark sector.
• Studied correlation functions to understand the angular structure of simulated events.
• Quantified the influence of dark sector parameters on key observables.

Conclusions:

• The simulation provides a new tool for studying strongly interacting dark sectors.
• Variations in dark sector parameters significantly affect event shape observables.
• Uncertainties in hadronisation parameters introduce limitations to current simulations.