Searches for new particles using cone and cluster jet algorithms: a comparative study

We discuss the reconstruction of the hadronic decays of heavy particles using jet algorithms. The ability to reconstruct the mass of the decaying particle is compared between a traditional cone-type algorithm and a recently proposed cluster-type algorithm. The specific examples considered are the semileptonic decays of a heavy Higgs boson at √s = 16 TeV, and of top quark-antiquark pairs at √s = 1.8 TeV. We find that the cluster algorithm offers considerable advantages in the former case, and a slight advantage in the latter. We briefly discuss the effects of calorimeter energy resolution, and show that a typical resolution dilutes these advantages, but does not remove them entirely