Discovering Electroweak Interacting Dark Matter at Muon Colliders Using Soft Tracks

Journal Article · 05 May 2025 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.181802 · OSTI ID:2564775

Capdevilla, Rodolfo ; Meloni, Federico ; Zurita, Jose

Minimal dark matter models feature one neutral particle that serves as a thermal relic dark matter candidate, as well as quasidegenerate charged states with TeV masses. When the charged states are produced at colliders, they can decay into dark matter and a low-momentum (soft) charged particle, which is challenging to reconstruct at hadron colliders. We demonstrate that a 3 TeV muon collider is capable of detecting these soft tracks, enabling the discovery of thermal Higgsinos and similar dark matter candidates that constitute highly motivated scenarios for future collider searches. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 2564775
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 134; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Publisher: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English