Dark Matter Searches: The Nightmare Scenario

TL;DR

This paper explores the implications of the LHC's potential failure to discover new physics on Dark Matter searches within the cMSSM framework, highlighting the capabilities of future direct detection and neutrino telescopes.

Contribution

It assesses the remaining cMSSM parameter space after LHC null results and evaluates the potential of ton-scale detectors and IceCube to probe this space.

Findings

Ton-scale direct detection experiments can fully probe surviving cMSSM regions.

IceCube can test up to 17% of the favored parameter space after 5 years.

Null LHC searches significantly constrain the viable Dark Matter parameter space.

Abstract

The unfortunate case where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) fails to discover physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) is sometimes referred to as the "Nightmare scenario" of particle physics. We study the consequences of this hypothetical scenario for Dark Matter (DM), in the framework of the constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (cMSSM). We evaluate the surviving regions of the cMSSM parameter space after null searches at the LHC, using several different LHC configurations, and study the consequences for DM searches with ton-scale direct detectors and the IceCube neutrino telescope. We demonstrate that ton-scale direct detection experiments will be able to conclusively probe the cMSSM parameter space that would survive null searches at the LHC with 100fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at 14TeV. We also demonstrate that IceCube (80 strings plus DeepCore) will be able to probe as much as 17% of the currently favoured parameter space after 5 years of observation.