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The required modifications to Geant are profound: pairs of quirks must must be stepped simultaneously through the detector volume under the influence of the string force as well as interactions with detector material. With the help of Geant experts at SLAC, a full simulation of quirk dynamics, including simulation of the infra color string has been added to Geant. Early results from this simulation are promising and validation of the code continues. In addition to informing the analysis strategy, insights gained from simulation work are key to a collaboration with theorists Markus Luty and Jared Evans on forming a better understanding of quirk dynamics.
Plans
Work on implementing quirks in Geant4 has begun, but is far from trivial because it involves fundamental changes to the way the Geant propagates particles through the detector: pairwise rather than individually. In parallel, we are beginning to develop background samples given our current level of understanding for the signatureA paper, co-authored with Luty and Evans, on quirk dynamics is underway and will feature the results of our simulations. Once the results have been fully validated and the simulation is vetted by ATLAS, we will proceed with the data analysis required for the mesoscopic quirk search on the full 2011-2012 data set. Since most of the analysis techniques required are now reasonably well established, we expect the analysis to proceed rapidly once the simulation work is complete.
References
arXiv:0805.4642
arXiv:1008.3547
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