LHC Signals for a SuperUnified Theory of Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper proposes a superunified theory connecting dark matter signals with LHC phenomenology, predicting unique lepton jet signatures and new long-lived particles arising from a hidden gauge sector embedded in low-energy SUSY.

Contribution

It introduces a simple embedding of a GeV-scale dark gauge symmetry within low-energy SUSY, predicting distinctive collider signatures and new particles.

Findings

Dark sector particles can be produced in SUSY cascade decays.

Lepton jets are a common feature in SUSY events with dark sector involvement.

Presence of long-lived colored particles if dark sector is charged under the Standard Model.

Abstract

A new theory of WIMP Dark Matter has been proposed, motivated directly by striking Data from the PAMELA and ATIC collaborations. The WIMP is taken to be charged under a hidden gauge symmetry G_Dark, broken near the GeV scale; this also provides the necessary ingredients for the "exciting" and "inelastic" Dark Matter interpretations of the INTEGRAL and DAMA signals. In this short note we point out the consequences of the most straightforward embedding of this simple picture within low-energy SUSY, in which G_Dark breaking at the GeV scale arises naturally through radiative corrections, or Planck-suppressed operators. The theory predicts major additions to SUSY signals at the LHC. A completely generic prediction is that G_Dark particles can be produced in cascade decays of MSSM superpartners, since these end with pairs of MSSM LSP's that in turn decay into the true LSP and other particles in the dark sector. In turn, the lightest GeV-scale dark Higgses and gauge bosons eventually decay back into light SM states, and dominantly into leptons. Therefore, a large fraction of all SUSY events will contain at least two ``lepton jets'': collections of n>= 2 leptons, with small angular separations and GeV scale invariant masses. Furthermore, if the Dark Matter sector is directly charged under the Standard Model, the success of gauge coupling unification implies the presence of new long-lived colored particles that can be copiously produced at the LHC.