Peter Mattig (University of Bonn), Michael Stoeltzner (University of South Carolina)
We look at the model landscape of physics beyond the Standard Model, emphasizing the importance of particle signatures for unbiased searches and exploratory experimentation at the LHC. Signatures are the stable end products of a scattering event. We argue that inferring signatures from raw data does not recur to theory, but is based on operational rules and concepts that grew out of previous experimentation. The physicists' picture (Raw Date - Signatures - Models) is interpreted against the backdrop of the classification by Bogen and Woodward (Data - Phenomena - Theory). Signatures are related to models, but such relations are many-to-many.
