Grad Talk: Search for A Dark Matter Mediator Through Jet Substructure

Abstract: An important, unanswered question in physics is the nature of dark matter. My research has been focused on searching for new low mass resonances that result from exotic particles which decay into two quarks. One benchmark model that is used in the analysis proposes the production of a dark matter mediator (DMM) as such a resonance. The DMM is a particle that transmits force between dark matter and normal matter. The decay products of this new resonance are reconstructed as one large-radius jet. Using jet substructure variables (JSVs), these jets must be analyzed to determine the internal structure in order to suppress background, whose cross-section is several orders of magnitude larger than that of the signal. Applying a technique to prevent mass distribution shaping when cutting on JSVs is crucial. One technique is creating Designed Decorrelated Taggers (DDT). This talk will go over the analysis and my work in DDTs.

Zoom Link: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/93847461477?pwd=V01rSkxOYm83NmNmVjFHQUptcGRNdz09