Speaker
Dr
Stephanie Hickford
(BU Wuppertal)
Description
Physics theories beyond the Standard Model like Supersymmetry
and models with extra dimensions often invoke Z_2 symmetries in
order to avoid new couplings that lead to unobserved new physics,
like unnaturally fast proton decay. This gives rise to the
possibility of heavy, new particles being produced in pairs with
the lightest of them being (meta-)stable.
Recently IceCube observed high energy neutrinos in the PeV range.
Under favorable conditions such neutrinos produce pairs of exotic,
charged particles that can be seen in km3-sized detectors like
IceCube as two parallel tracks with a track separation of a few
hundred meters. We discuss an ongoing search for such events,
including the simulation and reconstruction of double tracks and
how to separate them from other air shower or neutrino-induced
(coincident) muon events in a model independent way. We show how
to interpret any results in more explicit frameworks like
Supersymmetry.
Primary author
Mr
Sandro Kopper
(BU Wuppertal)
Co-author
Dr
Stephanie Hickford
(BU Wuppertal)