Chris Lester (Cambridge)

Data-data comparisons as searches for symmetries, parity violation, and emus

Abstract: Data-data comparisons in HEP (e.g. ratios of cross sections) are certainly not new and have been around for the best part of a century. Nevertheless, data-data comparisons are rarely the driving force motivating most LHC BSM searches for supersymmetry and leptoquarks where the majority of searches instead compare data to a signal model generated by Monte Carlo methods. This talk attempts to discuss some of the consequences of making data-data comparison a starting-point rather than a way-point in the development of a BSM search. Possible applications to searches for violation of charge-favour symmetry and/or parity may be discussed, perhaps aided by considerations relating to alien invasion of Restaurant 1 or difficulties faced by malacologists.