Search for dark matter produced in association with a dark Higgs boson decaying into $W^\pm W^\mp$ or $ZZ$ in fully hadronic final states from $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for dark matter produced alongside a dark Higgs boson decaying into vector boson pairs, using ATLAS data at 13 TeV, employing a novel jet reconstruction technique, and excludes certain dark Higgs mass scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a new technique for resolving boosted vector boson pairs in fully hadronic final states and sets limits on dark Higgs boson masses above 160 GeV.

Findings

Dark Higgs scenarios with m_s > 160 GeV are excluded.

A novel jet reconstruction technique improves detection of boosted VV pairs.

No significant dark matter signal was observed in the analyzed data.

Abstract

Several extensions of the Standard Model predict the production of dark matter particles at the LHC. An uncharted signature of dark matter particles produced in association with $VV=W^\pm W^\mp$ or $ZZ$ pairs from a decay of a dark Higgs boson $s$ is searched for using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The $s\to V(q\bar q)V(q\bar q)$ decays are reconstructed with a novel technique aimed at resolving the dense topology from boosted $VV$ pairs using jets in the calorimeter and tracking information. Dark Higgs scenarios with $m_s > 160$ GeV are excluded.