11th International Conference on Hard and Electromagnetic Probes of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions

Relativistic heavy-ion beams at the LHC are accompanied by a large flux of equivalent photons, leading to multiple photon-induced processes. This talk presents searches for physics beyond the standard model enabled by photon-photon processes in both di-tau and di-photon final states. The tau-pair production measurements can constrain the tau lepton’s anomalous magnetic dipole moment (g-2), and a recent ATLAS measurement using muonic decays of tau leptons in association with electrons and tracks provides one of the most stringent limits available to date. Similarly, light-by-light scattering proceeds via loop diagrams, which can contain particles not yet directly observed. Thus, high statistics measurements of light-by-light scattering shown in this talk provide a precise and unique opportunity to investigate extensions of the Standard Model, such as the presence of axion-like particles.