Searching for New Physics in Hadronic Final States with Run 2 Proton–Proton Collision Data at the LHC

Abstract

The symmetries of the Standard Model give rise to the forces that act on particles, and the corresponding force mediators. While the Standard Model is an excellent description of particle interactions, it has known limitations; it is therefore important to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, potentially indicating as-of-yet unknown symmetries of nature. The ATLAS and CMS collaborations have detailed physics programmes, involving a large number of searches for new physics in hadronic final states. As the start of Run 3 of the LHC is imminent, now is a good time to review the progress made and the status of hadronic searches during Run 2 at a centre-of-mass collision energy of s=13TeV. This review provides an overview of the motivations and challenges of hadronic final states at the LHC, followed by an introduction to jet reconstruction, calibration, and tagging. Three classes of searches for new physics in hadronic final states are discussed: di-jet searches, searches for missing transverse momentum in association with another object, and searches for hadronic di-boson resonances. The complementarity of these different analysis strategies is discussed, emphasising the importance of a varied hadronic physics programme in the search for new physics.