Simplified models of dark matter with a long-lived co-annihilation partner

Khoze, Valentin V.; Plascencia, Alexis D.; Sakurai, Kazuki

Abstract

We introduce a new set of simplified models to address the effects of 3-point interactions between the dark matter particle, its dark co-annihilation partner, and the Standard Model degree of freedom, which we take to be the tau lepton. The contributions from dark matter co-annihilation channels are highly relevant for a determination of the correct relic abundance. We investigate these effects as well as the discovery potential for dark matter co-annihilation partners at the LHC. A small mass splitting between the dark matter and its partner is preferred by the co-annihilation mechanism and suggests that the co-annihilation partners may be long-lived (stable or meta-stable) at collider scales. It is argued that such long-lived electrically charged particles can be looked for at the LHC in searches of anomalous charged tracks. This approach and the underlying models provide an alternative/complementarity to the mono-jet and multi-jet based dark matter searches widely used in the context of simplified models with the s-channel mediators. We consider four types of simplified models with different particle spins and coupling structures. Some of these models are manifestly gauge invariant and renormalizable, others would ultimately require a UV completion. These can be realised in terms of supersymmetric models in the neutralino-stau co-annihilation regime, as well as models with extra dimensions or composite models.

Citation

Khoze, V. V., Plascencia, A. D., & Sakurai, K. (2017). Simplified models of dark matter with a long-lived co-annihilation partner. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2017(6), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06%282017%29041

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 30, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 8, 2017
• Publication Date: Jun 8, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 20, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2017
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2017
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1-28
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06%282017%29041
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1364974
• Related Public URLs: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.00750