Abstract: We introduce version 2.0 of Z'-explorer, a software tool that provides a simple, fast, and user-friendly test of models with an extra U (1) gauge boson (Z') against experimental LHC results. The main novelty of the second version is the inclusion of missing energy searches, as the first version only included final states into SM particles. Hence Z'-explorer 2.0 is able to test dark matter models where the Z' acts as an s-channel mediator between the Standard Model and the dark sector, a widespread benchmark employed by the ATLAS and CMS experimental collaborations. To this end, we perform here the first public reinterpretation of the most recent ATLAS mono-jet search with 139 fb-1. In addition, the corresponding searches in the visible final states have also been updated. We illustrate the power of our code by re -obtaining public plots and also showing novel results. In particular, we study the cases where the Z' couples strongly to top quarks (top-philic), where dark matter couples with a mixture of vector and axial-vector couplings, and also perform a scan in the parameter space of a string inspired Stuckelberg model. Z'-explorer 2.0 is publicly available on GitHub. Program summary Program Title: Z'-explorer 2.0 CPC Library link to program files: https://doi .org /10 .17632 /k7tdp8kwgf .2 Developer's repository link: https://github .com /ro -sanda /Z--explorer-2 .0 Licensing provisions: GPLv3 Programming language: C++ and bash Nature of problem: New SM neutral gauge bosons, Z', are ubiquitously present in models of New Physics. In order to confront these models versus a large and ever-growing library of LHC searches, Z'-explorer 1.0 had already included all final states including Standard Model particles. Notably, the previous version of this tool lacked the so-called invisible final states manifested as a momentum imbalance in the transverse plane (“missing energy”). These searches help to probe mediators into a dark sector, where a dark matter candidate resides. Solution method: Z'-explorer encodes the production cross sections for Z' bosons at the LHC as a function of their mass, allowing for a fast evaluation of the exclusion limits. This version of Z'-explorer includes a careful validation of the latest search with one energetic jet (mono-jet) performed by the ATLAS collaboration. Hence one can now test if a given point in parameter space is excluded by both visible and invisible searches. The modular structure of the code has been kept, which allows for potential additions (low-energy constraints, flavor, extrapolation to future colliders).

Abstract: Several hints of the presence of a new state at about 95 GeV have been observed recently. The CMS and ATLAS Collaborations have reported excesses in the diphoton channel at about this diphoton invariant mass with local statistical significances of 2.9 sigma and 1.7 sigma, respectively. Furthermore, a 2 sigma excess in the bb over bar final state was also observed at LEP, again pointing at a similar mass value. We interpret these intriguing hints of new physics in a variant of the Scotogenic model, an economical scenario that induces Majorana neutrino masses at the loop level and includes a viable dark matter candidate. We show that our model can explain the 95 GeV excesses while respecting the relevant collider, Higgs, and electroweak precision bounds and discuss other phenomenological features of our scenario.

Abstract: We test the impact of the ATLAS and CMS multilepton searches performed at the LHC with 8 as well as 13 TeV center-of-mass energy (using only the pre-2018 results) on the chargino and neutralino sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). Our purpose consists in analyzing the actual reach of these searches for a full model and in emphasizing effects beyond the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that affect the performance of current (MSSM-inspired) electroweakino searches. To this end, we consider several scenarios characterizing specific features of the NMSSM electroweakino sector. We then perform a detailed collider study, generating Monte Carlo events through PYTHIA and testing against current LHC constraints implemented in the public tool CheckMATE. We find e.g., that supersymmetric decay chains involving intermediate singlino or Higgs-singlet states can modify the naive MSSM-like picture of the constraints by inducing final states with softer or less easily identifiable SM particles-reversely, a compressed configuration with singlino next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle occasionally induces final states that are rich with photons, which could provide complementary search channels.