Speaker
Description
The tau lepton plays a crucial role in probing the Standard Model, offering access to both the Higgs and leptonic sectors of physics. However, reconstructing the tau is inherently challenging due to the fact that it decays before reaching the detector region and must be identified through its decay products. This becomes even more difficult in a muon collider environment, which is subject to intense beam-induced background (BIB) — consisting primarily of soft, secondary particles which can obscure collision products in the detector volume. In this study, we assess the performance of the /texttt{TauFinder} reconstruction algorithm within the MAIA (Muon Accelerator Instrumented Apparatus) detector geometry, intended for $\sqrt{s} = 10$ TeV $\mu^+\mu^-$ collisions. In particular, we evaluate the reconstruction efficiency of 1-prong and 3-prong hadronically decaying taus without neutral hadrons, which together represent approximately 21% of all tau decay modes. We compare results with and without the overlay of simulated BIB. These results serve as a benchmark for tau reconstruction at a 10 TeV muon collider, demonstrating the physics potential of this machine.
