Constraints on Light Majorana Dark Matter from Colliders

TL;DR

This paper investigates collider constraints on light Majorana dark matter, showing that collider experiments currently provide the most stringent limits for certain interaction types, especially where direct detection is less effective.

Contribution

It offers a model-independent analysis demonstrating collider experiments' superior sensitivity to specific dark matter interactions compared to direct detection methods.

Findings

Colliders provide complementary and stronger constraints on light Majorana dark matter.

Certain operators are constrained by colliders, limiting their role in explaining DAMA results.

Collider searches outperform direct detection for some interaction operators.

Abstract

We explore model-independent collider constraints on light Majorana dark matter particles. We find that colliders provide a complementary probe of WIMPs to direct detection, and give the strongest current constraints on light DM particles. Collider experiments can access interactions not probed by direct detection searches, and outperform direct detection experiments by about an order of magnitude for certain operators in a large part of parameter space. For operators which are suppresssed at low momentum transfer, collider searches have already placed constraints on such operators limiting their use as an explanation for DAMA.