Lower Limit on Dark Matter Production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Jonathan L Feng,Fumihiro Takayama,Shufang Su

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.151802

Jonathan L Feng, Fumihiro Takayama + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.96.151802

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Abstract

We evaluate the prospects for finding evidence of dark matter production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We consider weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and superWIMPs and characterize their properties through model-independent parametrizations. The observed relic density then implies lower bounds on dark matter production rates as functions of a few parameters. For WIMPs, the resulting signal is indistinguishable from background. For superWIMPs, however, this analysis implies significant production of metastable charged particles. For natural parameters, these rates may far exceed Drell-Yan cross sections and yield spectacular signals.

Highlights

We evaluate the prospects for finding evidence of dark matter production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
An exciting possibility is that particles that make up some or all of dark matter may be produced at high-energy colliders, such as the Tevatron at Fermilab or, beginning in 2007, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN
Such prospects are promising if dark matter is composed of WIMPs or superWIMPs, weakly or superweakly interacting massive particles, since these scenarios require new particles with masses near Mweak 100 GeV, the scale to be probed in detail at the LHC

Summary

Introduction

The observed relic density implies lower bounds on dark matter production rates as functions of a few parameters. Such prospects are promising if dark matter is composed of WIMPs or superWIMPs, weakly or superweakly interacting massive particles, since these scenarios require new particles with masses near Mweak 100 GeV, the scale to be probed in detail at the LHC. WIMP and superWIMP production rates are constrained by cosmology, because dark matter densities are determined (in part) by thermal freeze-out in these scenarios.

Results

Conclusion