Soft unclustered energy patterns (SUEPs) [ATLAS/CMS, TH]

by Cari Cesarotti, Carlos Francisco Erice Cid (Boston University (US))

Thursday 17 Sept 2026, 11:00 → 13:00 Europe/Zurich

4/2-011 - TH common room (CERN)

Abstract
Soft unclustered energy patterns (SUEPs), or "soft bombs," are defined by their final state rather than by any single model: a high multiplicity of low-momentum particles distributed quasi-isotropically, with no hard or collimated objects to trigger on or reconstruct. The signature is a generic indicator of physics beyond the Standard Model, arising whenever the available energy is shared democratically among many states --- canonically in a strongly coupled, quasi-conformal dark sector with large 't Hooft coupling, but equally in extra-dimensional constructions or purely kinematically from long cascades with small mass splittings. This talk will review the theoretical picture and the accompanying experimental program, which has advanced quickly: from the first CMS search using boosted topologies and track-based sphericity, to associated production with a �W or �Z, data scouting, and the first ATLAS search targeting muon-rich final states, which now bounds �(ℎ→SUEP)B(h→SUEP) at the �(10−3)O(10−3) level. Remaining gaps in parameter space and prospects for Run 3 and beyond will be discussed.

Speakers

Carlos Francisco Erice Cid is an experimental physicist working as a postdoctoral researcher within Boston University CMS group. He previously worked at Universidad de Oviedo, where he got his PhD in 2021. His research focuses on the development of new algorithms for event reconstruction in the Phase II of the LHC, and the design of searches for new, exotic signatures within the CMS experiment.

 

Cari Cesarotti is currently a fellow in CERN-TH. She did her PhD at Harvard and then continued on to her first postdoc at MIT. The focus of her research is BSM physics at colliders, with emphasis on LHC experiments as well as the reach of possible future colliders.