Simplified Dark Matter Models Research Articles

Constraints on simplified dark matter models involving an s-channel mediator with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s=13\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s} = 13$$\\end{document} TeV

This paper reports a summary of searches for a fermionic dark matter candidate in the context of theoretical models characterised by a mediator particle exchange in the s-channel. The data sample considered consists of pp collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider during its Run 2 at a centre-of-mass energy of s=13TeV\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s} = 13\\,\ extrm{TeV}$$\\end{document} and recorded by the ATLAS detector, corresponding to up to 140 fb-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\\end{document}. The interpretations of the results are based on simplified models where the new mediator particles can be spin-0, with scalar or pseudo-scalar couplings to fermions, or spin-1, with vector or axial-vector couplings to fermions. Exclusion limits are obtained from various searches characterised by final states with resonant production of Standard Model particles, or production of Standard Model particles in association with large missing transverse momentum.

Exploring constraints on Simplified Dark Matter model through flavour and electroweak observables

This study focuses on a combined analysis of various available inputs to constrain the parameter spaces of a simplified dark matter (SDM) model featuring a spin-0 mediator and fermionic dark matter (DM). The spin-0 mediator interacts with standard model (SM) fermions, SM gauge bosons, and DM. We constrain the parameter spaces of different relevant couplings, DM mass, and the mediator mass, using the data from flavour-changing charged and neutral current processes, CKM matrices, W and Z-pole observables, DM relic density, direct and indirect detection bounds. We have calculated bounds on the couplings from both separate and simultaneous analyses of the mentioned processes. We identify correlated parameter spaces for all the relevant parameters which include the couplings and the masses. For the DM and mediator masses, we have scanned the region between 100 GeV and 1000 GeV. Using our results, we have obtained bounds on the couplings of possible higher dimensional operators from which we can formulate our SDM.

A study on vector mediator top-philic dark matter

We conducted a study on a simplified dark matter model that introduces a vector-like intermediate particle, facilitating exclusive interactions between dark matter and the top quark in the Standard Model. The analysis focused on the relic density of Dirac-type fermion dark matter and highlighted the complementary role of direct detection in constraining the dark matter model. Notably, in instances when dark matter mass is small, the tree-level two-body annihilation process experiences suppression. In such scenarios, the contributions of the three-body process ( χχ¯→tb¯W− ) and the one-loop process ( χχ¯→gg ) dominate the relic abundance. With regard to direct detection, calculations were performed for the two-loop contribution to the dark-matter–gluon interaction, yielding the corresponding spin-independent scattering cross section.

Flavoured Majorana Dark Matter then and now: from freeze-out scenarios to LHC signatures

We study a simplified Dark Matter model in the Dark Minimal Flavour Violation framework. Our model complements the Standard Model with a flavoured Dark Matter Majorana triplet and a coloured scalar mediator that share a Yukawa coupling with the right-handed up-type quarks with the coupling matrix λ. We extend previous work on this topic by exploring a large range of cosmologically viable parameter space, including the coannihilation region and, in particular, the region of conversion-driven freeze-out, while considering constraints from D0–D¯0\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {D}^0\\hbox{--} {\\overline{D}}^0 $$\\end{document} mixing as well as constraints from direct and indirect Dark Matter searches. We find various realisations of conversion-driven freeze-out within the model, that open up allowed windows of parameter space towards small mass splittings and very weak Dark Matter couplings. Finally, we probe the model by reinterpreting current LHC searches for missing energy and long-lived particles. We point out gaps in the coverage of current constraints as well as new opportunities to search for the model at the LHC, in particular, the charge asymmetry in single-top production associated with jets and missing energy.

Lambda Scan for T- Channel Fermion Dark Matter Model

The development of collider machines revealed a lot about the matter in particle physics. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, has made a great contribution to this field. While the LHC experimental data were compared with the Standard Model (SM), new models were put forward by theorists. Various parameters of many phenomenological studies have been tested for high-energy collisions. In this study, I examined a simplified Dark matter model, the t-channel Fermion Portal model, with the lambda parameter scan at 14 TeV. Signal generation was performed using the Madgraph5 generator to scan mediator and dark matter mass. It was checked how the change of the lambda constant changed the dark matter production mechanism of the model.

Global fits of simplified models for dark matter with GAMBIT

Global fits explore different parameter regions of a given model and apply constraints obtained at many energy scales. This makes it challenging to perform global fits of simplified models, which may not be valid at high energies. In this study, we derive a unitarity bound for a simplified vector dark matter model with an s-channel vector mediator and apply it to global fits of this model with GAMBIT in order to correctly interpret missing energy searches at the LHC. Two parameter space regions emerge as consistent with all experimental constraints, corresponding to different annihilation modes of the dark matter. We show that although these models are subject to strong validity constraints, they are currently most strongly constrained by measurements less sensitive to the high-energy behaviour of the theory. Understanding when these models cannot be consistently studied will become increasingly relevant as they are applied to LHC Run 3 data.

Constraints on spin-0 dark matter mediators and invisible Higgs decays using ATLAS 13 TeV pp collision data with two top quarks and missing transverse momentum in the final state

This paper presents a statistical combination of searches targeting final states with two top quarks and invisible particles, characterised by the presence of zero, one or two leptons, at least one jet originating from a b-quark and missing transverse momentum. The analyses are searches for phenomena beyond the Standard Model consistent with the direct production of dark matter in pp collisions at the LHC, using 139 fb^{-text {1}} of data collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The results are interpreted in terms of simplified dark matter models with a spin-0 scalar or pseudoscalar mediator particle. In addition, the results are interpreted in terms of upper limits on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio, where the Higgs boson is produced according to the Standard Model in association with a pair of top quarks. For scalar (pseudoscalar) dark matter models, with all couplings set to unity, the statistical combination extends the mass range excluded by the best of the individual channels by 50 (25) GeV, excluding mediator masses up to 370 GeV. In addition, the statistical combination improves the expected coupling exclusion reach by 14% (24%), assuming a scalar (pseudoscalar) mediator mass of 10 GeV. An upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.38 (text {0.30}^{+text {0.13}}_{-text {0.09}}) is observed (expected) at 95% confidence level.

Global fits of simplified models for dark matter with GAMBIT

Simplified models provide a useful way to study the impacts of a small number of new particles on experimental observables and the interplay of those observables, without the need to construct an underlying theory. In this study, we perform global fits of simplified dark matter models with GAMBIT using an up-to-date set of likelihoods for indirect detection, direct detection and collider searches. We investigate models in which a scalar or fermionic dark matter candidate couples to quarks via an s-channel vector mediator. Large parts of parameter space survive for each model. In the case of Dirac or Majorana fermion dark matter, excesses in LHC monojet searches and relic density limits tend to prefer the resonance region, where the dark matter has approximately half the mass of the mediator. A combination of vector and axial-vector couplings to the Dirac candidate also leads to competing constraints from direct detection and unitarity violation.

Dark Matter Searches with Top Quarks

Collider signatures with top quarks provide sensitive probes of dark matter (DM) production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this article, we review the results of DM searches in final states with top quarks conducted by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the LHC, including the most recent results on the full LHC Run 2 dataset. We highlight the complementarity of DM searches in final states with top quarks with searches in other final states in the framework of various simplified models of DM. A reinterpretation of a DM search with top quarks in the context of an effective field theory description of scalar dark energy is also discussed. Finally, we give an outlook on the potential of DM searches with top quarks in LHC Run 3, at the high-luminosity LHC, and possible future colliders. In this context, we highlight new benchmark models that could be probed by existing and future searches as well as those that predict still-uncovered signatures of anomalous top-quark production and decays at the LHC.

Dark biportals at direct detection

We present a study of the constraining power of low-threshold, high-resolution direct-detection experiments for a biportal simplified dark matter model. In the scenario we consider here, dark matter and Standard Model particles interact through two dark vector mediators---one light and one heavy with respect to the momentum transfer in the experiment. Interference effects at the level of scattering amplitudes can lead to novel marked shape features in the differential recoil spectra, which are best exploited by high-resolution, low-threshold experiments. We identify the region in parameter space for our model where such effects are dominant and show that composite-target experiments with large atomic mass differences are ideal to explore these scenarios. We develop a profile likelihood approach to analyze presently available and future data. Using published results by the CRESST-III experiment and projections of future sensitivities for the COSINUS experiment, we constrain the parameter space in our model, thereby showing the potential of such an analysis for a class of dark matter models that exhibit nonstandard features in the recoil spectra.

Search for associated production of a Z boson with an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates at [formula omitted] TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson as well as searches for dark matter candidates, produced together with a leptonically decaying Z boson, are presented. The analysis is performed using proton−proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, delivered by the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139fb−1 and recorded by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming Standard Model cross-sections for ZH production, the observed (expected) upper limit on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to invisible particles is found to be 19% (19%) at the 95% confidence level. Exclusion limits are also set for simplified dark matter models and two-Higgs-doublet models with an additional pseudoscalar mediator.

Search for strongly interacting massive particles generating trackless jets in proton\u2013proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13,text {TeV}

A search for dark matter in the form of strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs) using the CMS detector at the LHC is presented. The SIMPs would be produced in pairs that manifest themselves as pairs of jets without tracks. The energy fraction of jets carried by charged particles is used as a key discriminator to suppress efficiently the large multijet background, and the remaining background is estimated directly from data. The search is performed using proton–proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 16.1,text {fb}^{-1}, collected with the CMS detector in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed above the expected background. For the simplified dark matter model under consideration, SIMPs with masses up to 100,text {GeV} are excluded and further sensitivity is explored towards higher masses.

Towards a method to anticipate dark matter signals with deep learning at the LHC

We study several simplified dark matter (DM) models and their signatures at the LHC using neural networks. We focus on the usual monojet plus missing transverse energy channel, but to train the algorithms we organize the data in 2D histograms instead of event-by-event arrays. This results in a large performance boost to distinguish between standard model (SM) only and SM plus new physics signals. We use the kinematic monojet features as input data which allow us to describe families of models with a single data sample. We found that the neural network performance does not depend on the simulated number of background events if they are presented as a function of S/\sqrt{B}S/B, for reasonably large BB, where SS and BB are the number of signal and background events per histogram, respectively. This provides flexibility to the method, since testing a particular model in that case only requires knowing the new physics monojet cross section. Furthermore, we also discuss the network performance under incorrect assumptions about the true DM nature. Finally, we propose multimodel classifiers to search and identify new signals in a more general way, for the next LHC run.

The GAMBIT Universal Model Machine: from Lagrangians to likelihoods

We introduce the GAMBIT Universal Model Machine (GUM), a tool for automatically generating code for the global fitting software framework GAMBIT, based on Lagrangian-level inputs. GUM accepts models written symbolically in FeynRules and SARAH formats, and can use either tool along with MadGraph and CalcHEP to generate GAMBIT model, collider, dark matter, decay and spectrum code, as well as GAMBIT interfaces to corresponding versions of SPheno, micrOMEGAs, Pythia and Vevacious (C). In this paper we describe the features, methods, usage, pathways, assumptions and current limitations of GUM. We also give a fully worked example, consisting of the addition of a Majorana fermion simplified dark matter model with a scalar mediator to GAMBIT via GUM, and carry out a corresponding fit.

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb−1, collected in 2017–2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb−1, collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.

Shedding light on dark matter with recent muon (g \u2212 2) and Higgs exotic decay measurements

Recently, we have witnessed two hints of physics beyond the standard model: a 3.3σ local excess ( {M}_{A_0} = 52 GeV) in the search for H0 → A0A0 → b overline{b} μ+μ− and a 4.2σ deviation from the SM prediction in the (g − 2)μ measurement. The first excess was found by the ATLAS collaboration using 139 fb−1 data at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV. The second deviation is a combination of the results from the Brookhaven E821 and the recently reported Fermilab E989 experiment. We attempt to explain these deviations in terms of a renormalizable simplified dark matter model. Inspired by the null signal result from dark matter (DM) direct detection, we interpret the possible new particle, A0, as a pseudoscalar mediator connecting DM and the standard model. On the other hand, a new vector-like muon lepton can explain these two excesses at the same time while contributing to the DM phenomenology.

Closing in on $\textit{t}$-channel simplified dark matter models

Closing in on $\textit{t}$-channel simplified dark matter models

Constraining the 3−3−1 model with heavy neutral leptons using (g−2)μ and dark matter observables

We find constraints on the highest scale of symmetry breaking of a model with gauge symmetry $SU(3)_C \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes U(1)_X$ with heavy neutral leptons in the fermion triplets, calculating the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and using results of the relic abundance of dark matter and experiments searching for its direct detection. In order to do this, we have calculated the one-loop contribution of new particles in the model to $(g-2)_{\mu}$, finding a favoured region for the scale at which $SU(3)_L$ is broken, and we have found lower bounds for this scale making a comparison of the predictions for the detection of a fermion dark matter candidate in the model in terms of simplified dark matter models, identifying the dominant portal for its interactions with standard model particles, and using constraints for the relic abundance and spin-independent scattering cross section of the fermion candidate with protons.

Search for dijet resonances in events with an isolated charged lepton using sqrt{s} = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector

A search for dijet resonances in events with at least one isolated charged lepon is performed using 139 fb−1 of sqrt{s} = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The dijet invariant-mass (mjj) distribution constructed from events with at least one isolated electron or muon is searched in the region 0.22 < mjj< 6.3 TeV for excesses above a smoothly falling background from Standard Model processes. Triggering based on the presence of a lepton in the event reduces limitations imposed by minimum transverse momentum thresholds for triggering on jets. This approach allows smaller dijet invariant masses to be probed than in inclusive dijet searches, targeting a variety of new-physics models, for example ones in which a new state is produced in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. No statistically significant deviation from the Standard Model background hypothesis is found. Limits on contributions from generic Gaussian signals with widths ranging from that determined by the detector resolution up to 15% of the resonance mass are obtained for dijet invariant masses ranging from 0.25 TeV to 6 TeV. Limits are set also in the context of several scenarios beyond the Standard Model, such as the Sequential Standard Model, a technicolor model, a charged Higgs boson model and a simplified Dark Matter model.

Comparing 2HDM + scalar and pseudoscalar simplified models at LHC

In this work we compare the current experimental LHC limits of the 2HDM + scalar and pseudoscalar for the toverline{t} , mono-Z and mono-h signatures and forecast the reach of future LHC upgrades for the mono-Z channel. Furthermore, we comment on the possibility, in case of a signal detection, to discriminate between the two models. The 2HDM+S and 2HDM+PS are two notable examples of the so-called next generation of Dark Matter Simplified Models. They allow for a renormalizable coupling of fermionic, Standard Model singlet, Dark Matter with a two Higgs doublet sector, through the mixing of the latter with a scalar or pseudoscalar singlet.