Dark Matter Searches in Jet plus Missing Energy in $\rm \gamma p$ collision at CERN LHC

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of the LHC to detect dark matter via jet plus missing energy signals in gamma-proton collisions, setting limits on dark matter-quark couplings within an effective field theory framework.

Contribution

It introduces a model-independent analysis of dark matter production in gamma-proton collisions at the LHC, including background and diffractive processes, to establish new sensitivity bounds.

Findings

Detects WIMP mass scales up to ~800 GeV with 200 fb^{-1} luminosity.

Provides bounds on dark matter couplings for different detector acceptances.

Shows the feasibility of gamma-proton collisions for dark matter searches.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the $\rm \gamma p$ photoproduction of jet plus missing energy signal to set limits on the couplings of the fermionic dark matter to the quarks at the LHC via the main reaction $\rm pp\rightarrow p\gamma p\rightarrow p \chi\chi j$. We assume a typical LHC multipurpose forward detectors and work in a model independent Effective Field Theory framework. Typically, when we do the background analysis, we also include their corresponding Single Diffractive (SD) productions. Our result shows that by requiring a $5\sigma$ ($\rm S/\sqrt{B} \geq 5$) signal deviation, with an integrated luminosity of $\rm {\cal L} = 200 fb^{-1}$, the lower bounds of WIMP masses scale can be detected up to $\rm \Lambda$ equal 665.5, 808.9 and 564.0 GeV for the forward detector acceptances $\xi_1$, $\xi_2$, and $\xi_3$, respectively, where $0.0015<\xi_1<0.5$, $0.1<\xi_2<0.5$ and $0.0015<\xi_3<0.15$.