Dark Matter characterization at the LHC in the Effective Field Theory approach

TL;DR

This study analyzes effective operators involving dark matter at the LHC to determine how they influence observable distributions, aiming to distinguish operator types and infer dark matter spin through MET analysis.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of dimension 5 and 6 EFT operators involving dark matter, showing how they affect MET distributions and can be distinguished at the LHC.

Findings

Certain EFT operators can be distinguished with 300 fb$^{-1}$ luminosity.

MET distribution shapes depend on operator structure and DM spin.

Discovery potential varies significantly with DM spin and MET cuts.

Abstract

We have studied the complete set of dimension 5 and dimension 6 effective operators involving the interaction of scalar, fermion and vector Dark Matter (DM) with SM quarks and gluons, to explore the possibility to distinguish these operators and characterise the spin of DM at the LHC. We have found that three factors - the effective dimension of the operator, the structure of the SM part of the operator and the parton densities of the SM particles connected to the operator - uniquely define the shape of the (unobservable) invariant mass distribution of the DM pair and, consequently, the shape of the (observable) MET distribution related to it. Using $\chi^2$ analysis, we found that at the LHC, with a luminosity of 300 fb$^{-1}$, certain classes of EFT operators can be distinguished from each other. Hence, since DM spin is partly correlated with the factors defining the shape of MET, the LHC can potentially shed a light also on DM spin. We have also observed a drastic difference in the efficiencies (up to two orders of magnitude) for large MET cuts scenarios with different DM spin, thus indicating that the DM discovery potential strongly depends on it. The study we perform here can be applied more generally than within the EFT paradigm, where the DM mediator is not produced on-the-mass-shell, such as the case of t-channel mediator or mediator with mass below $2M_{DM}$, where the invariant mass of the DM pair is not fixed.