Axion Like Particle Searches and Prospects of Model Discrimination

by Dr Monoranjan Guchait (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)

Thursday 27 Aug 2026, 16:00 → 17:30 Asia/Seoul

Room 1423 (KIAS)

Title: Axion Like Particle Searches and Prospects of Model Discrimination

Speaker: Monoranjan Guchait

Abstract:

In recent years, axion-like particles (ALPs), which arise in many well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model(SM), have received a lot of attention. Searching for ALPs at collider experiments, as well as in cosmological and astrophysical observations, has consequently become an important research program. In our recent work, considering the interaction of ALPs with the SM gauge bosons through an effective Lagrangian, we investigate the feasibility of searching for ALPs at the LHC in association with a gauge boson(W/Z), focusing on the diphoton decay mode of ALPs. By analyzing the Lorentz structure of the ALP–gauge-boson interactions, we identify characteristic polarization patterns of the associated gauge bosons that differ significantly from those produced in association with the SM Higgs boson and from relevant other SM backgrounds. We will demonstrate how this characteristic polarization structure of the gauge boson produced in association with an ALP provides a powerful discriminator between competing models that can lead to an experimentally similar V+2 phtonons final state. In particular, these polarization-sensitive observables can help distinguish an ALP signal from a CP-even scalar resonance, thereby providing information beyond the observation of a diphoton resonance alone.