Complementarity of Indirect and Accelerator Dark Matter Searches

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how combining LHC data with indirect dark matter searches like gamma-ray observations can effectively identify dark matter particles, overcoming limitations of collider data alone.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the complementarity between collider and indirect detection methods in determining dark matter properties within a supersymmetric model.

Findings

Current Fermi LAT limits can exclude false Wino-like solutions.

Upcoming Planck data will further constrain dark matter models.

Gamma-ray detection prospects with CTA could confirm dark matter signals.

Abstract

Even if Supersymmetric particles are found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will be difficult to prove that they constitute the bulk of the Dark Matter (DM) in the Universe using LHC data alone. We study the complementarity of LHC and DM indirect searches, working out explicitly the reconstruction of the DM properties for a specific benchmark model in the coannihilation region of a 24-parameters supersymmetric model. Combining mock high-luminosity LHC data with present-day null searches for gamma-rays from dwarf galaxies with the Fermi LAT, we show that current Fermi LAT limits already have the capability of ruling out a spurious Wino-like solution that would survive using LHC data only, thus leading to the correct identification of the cosmological solution. We also demonstrate that upcoming Planck constraints on the reionization history will have a similar constraining power, and discuss the impact of a possible detection of gamma-rays from DM annihilation in Draco with a CTA-like experiment. Our results indicate that indirect searches can be strongly complementary to the LHC in identifying the DM particles, even when astrophysical uncertainties are taken into account.