Speaker
Description
Many extensions to the Standard Model introduce a hidden or dark
sector to provide candidates for dark matter in the universe an
explanation to astrophysical observations such as the positron excess
observed in the cosmic radiation flux. this hidden sector could rise
from an additional U(1)d gauge symmetry. The gauge boson of the dark
sector would be either a massless or a massive dark photon that can
either kinetically mix with the SM photon, or couple to the Higgs
sector via some mediators. If dark photons decay back to the SM with a
significant branching ratio, we could either observe measurable
deviations in some particular Higgs decay channels or new exotic
signatures that would be accessible at LHC energies. We will present a
brief overview of searches of dark photon signals with the ATLAS
detector, with a particular emphasis on some SM Higgs decay channels.
