Search for Dark Matter with LHC proton Beam Dump

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experiment using the LHC proton beam dump to search for dark matter particles in the MeV to GeV mass range by detecting signatures involving neutrinos, electrons, and strongly interacting particles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup leveraging the LHC proton beam dump to explore dark matter candidates in an unexplored energy region.

Findings

Potential to detect dark matter signatures via kinematic excesses

Unique sensitivity in the MeV to GeV mass range

Feasibility of observing elastic and inelastic scattering events

Abstract

Dark Matter (DM) comprising particles in the mass range of a few MeV to GeV is waiting to be explored, given the many theoretical models accommodating cosmological abundance. We hereby propose an experiment with the LHC proton beam of 7 TeV striking onto the beam dump target, emitting neutrinos and possibly, Dark Matter candidates. This experiment would also permit to observe signatures involving elastic and inelastic processes involving DM candidates, electrons and strongly interacting particles present in nuclei of the dump target. There will be residual neutrino background present in each of these signatures, hence the proposed experimental detector sub-systems would be such that they would involve as final states, elastically or inelasticity scattered, standard model particles. The bump or the excess in the tail of the kinematic distributions will eventually give us glimpse of presence of new particles which could possibly be Dark Matter candidates. Given the parameters of the LHC machine, the sensitivity of such an experiment is unique in the energy region it is supposed to exploit.