How to prove that a excess at the LHC is not due to dark matter
If the LHC is able to produce dark matter particles, they would appear at the end of cascade decay chains, manifesting themselves as missing transverse energy. However, such “dark matter candidates” may themselves decay invisibly. We propose to test for this possibility by studying the effect of particle widths on the observable invariant mass distributions of the visible particles seen in the detector. We consider the simplest nontrivial case of a two-step two-body cascade decay and derive analytically the shapes of the invariant mass distributions, for generic values of the widths of the new particles. We demonstrate that the resulting distortion in the shape of the invariant mass distribution can be significant enough to measure the width of the dark matter “candidate,” ruling it out as the source of the cosmological dark matter.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0010296
- OSTI ID:
- 1470792
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1501640
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Vol. 98 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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