No Arabic abstract
We present projections for future collider searches for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks. Such production channels give rise to final states with missing transverse energy and one or more b-jets. Limits are given assuming an effective scalar operator coupling dark matter to quarks, where the dedicated analysis discussed here improves significantly over a generic monojet analysis. We give updated results for an anticipated high-luminosity LHC run at 14 TeV and for a 33 TeV hadron collider.
Convincing and direct evidence for dark matter (DM) on galactic scales comes from the observation of the rotation curves of galaxies. At particle colliders, searches for DM involve the production of a pair of stable electrically neutral and weakly interacting particles with a signature of missing transverse energy ($E^{rm T}_{rm miss}$) recoiling against a SM particle. The resulting signature yields a final state denoted as X+$E^{rm T}_{rm miss}$, where the SM particle X is emitted as initial state radiation. The Higgs boson discovery at the LHC opens a new window into the searches for new physics processes beyond the SM through the h+$E^{rm T}_{rm miss}$ signature, as a direct probe of the interaction involving DM particles. Due to the small Yukawa couplings to quarks and gluons, the initial state radiation of the Higgs boson is suppressed, but it can be produced in the case of a new interaction with DM particles. Searches for DM particles produced in association with the Higgs boson are discussed. They are based on proton-proton collision data at the LHC in different final states.
We discuss two complementary strategies to search for light dark matter (LDM) exploiting the positron beam possibly available in the future at Jefferson Laboratory. LDM is a new compelling hypothesis that identifies dark matter with new sub-GeV hidden sector states, neutral under standard model interactions and interacting with our world through a new force. Accelerator-based searches at the intensity frontier are uniquely suited to explore it. Thanks to the high intensity and the high energy of the CEBAF (Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility) beam, and relying on a novel LDM production mechanism via positron annihilation on target atomic electrons, the proposed strategies will allow us to explore new regions in the LDM parameters space, thoroughly probing the LDM hypothesis as well as more general hidden sector scenarios.
TeV-scale particles that couple to the standard model through the weak force represent a compelling class of dark matter candidates. The search for such Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) has already spanned multiple decades, and whilst it has yet to provide any definitive evidence for their existence, viable parameter space remains. In this paper, we show that the upcoming Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) has significant sensitivity to uncharted parameter space at the TeV mass scale. To do so, we focus on two prototypical dark matter candidates, the Wino and Higgsino. Sensitivity forecasts for both models are performed including the irreducible background from misidentified cosmic rays, as well as a range of estimates for the Galactic emissions at TeV energies. For each candidate, we find substantial expected improvements over existing bounds from current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. In detail, for the Wino we find a sensitivity improvement of roughly an order of magnitude in $langle sigma v rangle$, whereas for the Higgsino we demonstrate that CTA has the potential to become the first experiment that has sensitivity to the thermal candidate. Taken together, these enhanced sensitivities demonstrates the discovery potential for dark matter at CTA in the 1-100 TeV mass range.
Over the past decade, extensive studies have been undertaken to search for photon signals from dark matter annihilation or decay for dark matter particle masses above $sim1$ GeV. However, due to the lacking sensitivity of current experiments at MeV-GeV energies, sometimes dubbed the MeV gap, dark matter models with MeV to sub-GeV particle masses have received little attention so far. Various proposed MeV missions (like, e.g., e-ASTROGAM or AMEGO) are aimed at closing this gap in the mid- or long-term future. This, and the absence of clear dark matter signals in the GeV-TeV range, makes it relevant to carefully reconsider the expected experimental instrumental sensitivities in this mass range. The most common two-body annihilation channels for sub-GeV dark matter are to neutrinos, electrons, pions or directly to photons. Among these, only the electron channel has been extensively studied, and almost exclusively in the context of the 511 keV line. In this work, we study the prospects for detecting MeV dark matter annihilation in general in future MeV missions, using e-ASTROGAM as reference, and focusing on dark matter masses in the range 1 MeV-3 GeV. In the case of leptonic annihilation, we emphasise the importance of the often overlooked bremsstrahlung and in-flight annihilation spectral features, which in many cases provide the dominant gamma-ray signal in this regime.
Direct-detection searches for axions and hidden photons are playing an increasingly prominent role in the search for dark matter. In this work, we derive the properties of optimal electromagnetic searches for these candidates, subject to the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) on amplification. We show that a single-pole resonant search may possess substantial sensitivity outside of the resonator bandwidth and that optimizing this sensitivity may increase scan rates by up to five orders of magnitude at low frequencies. Additional enhancements can be obtained with resonator quality factors exceeding one million, which corresponds to the linewidth of the dark matter signal. We present the resonator optimization in the broader context of determining the optimal receiver architecture (resonant or otherwise). We discuss prior probabilities on the dark matter signal and their role in the search optimization. We determine frequency-integrated sensitivity to be the figure of merit in a wideband search and demonstrate that it is limited by the Bode-Fano criterion. The optimized single-pole resonator is approximately 75% of the Bode-Fano limit, establishing it as a fundamentally near-ideal, single-moded dark matter detection scheme. Our analysis shows, in contrast to previous work, that the scanned single-pole resonant search is superior to a reactive broadband search. Our results motivate the broad application of quantum measurement techniques evading the SQL in future axion and hidden-photon dark matter searches.