UC Irvine

A search is presented for emerging jets using 140fb-1$$140~\textrm{fb}^{-1}$$ of proton–proton collision data at s=13TeV$$\sqrt{s} = 13~\textrm{TeV}$$, collected by the ATLAS experiment between 2015 and 2018. The search looks for the existence of a dark sector with symmetries similar to those in quantum chromodynamics. This dark sector is populated with dark quarks, which undergo showering similar to quarks in the Standard Model, leading to a high multiplicity of long-lived dark hadrons within a dark jet. These dark hadrons subsequently decay to Standard Model particles via a new heavy scalar mediating particle ϕ$$\phi $$. This results in jets which contain multiple displaced vertices, known as emerging jets. This analysis targets four-jet topologies, with two emerging jets and two Standard Model jets, resulting from the decay of pair-produced scalar mediators. No significant excess above the Standard Model background is observed. For dark pion proper decay lengths of 20mm$$20~\textrm{mm}$$, mediator masses are excluded between 1 and 2TeV$$2~\textrm{TeV}$$ assuming a dark pion mass of 20GeV$$20~\textrm{GeV}$$.