Dark Sector Searches at the LHC

by Tim Cohen (CERN)

Thursday 6 Jul 2023, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/Zurich

4/3-006 - TH Conference Room (CERN)

Shared event with Lund Jet Plane workshop.

Abstract:  It is plausible that the dark matter is a remnant of a hidden sector that involves new strongly coupled dynamics akin to Standard Model QCD.  Such a dark sector could lead to a variety of signatures at the LHC, and its imprint could be lurking within subtle properties of jet substructure.  In this talk, I will discuss the status of dark sector searches at the LHC.  I will introduce our simplified model-like parameterization for the collider signatures of semi-visible jets.  These objects are characterized by a jet like spray of QCD hadrons that is aligned with invisible dark matter hadrons, a generic feature of parton showers.  I will highlight recent ATLAS and CMS searches for semi-visible jets.  I will then explain our state-of-the art prediction for the theory error on substructure distributions.  I will show recent work where we argue that the Lund Jet Plane provides a simple representation to isolate the incalculable effects of dark sector fragmentation and hadronization.  This will facilitate more robust LHC searches for these exciting signatures in the future.

Cohen_Dark Showers - CERN - BSM Forum and Lund Jet Plane Institute.pdf