$Z'$-explorer 2.0: reconnoitering the dark matter landscape

TL;DR

$Z'$-explorer 2.0 is an updated software tool that tests $Z'$ models against LHC results, now including missing energy searches, enabling better analysis of dark matter models with a $Z'$ mediator.

Contribution

The paper introduces $Z'$-explorer 2.0, which incorporates missing energy searches and performs the first public reinterpretation of recent ATLAS mono-jet data.

Findings

Reproduces public plots accurately.

Demonstrates new results for top-philic $Z'$ models.

Performs parameter scans in string-inspired models.

Abstract

We introduce version 2.0 of $Z'$-explorer, a software tool which provides a simple, fast and user-friendly test of models with an extra $U(1)$ gauge boson ($Z'$) against experimental LHC results. The main novelty of the second version is the inclusion of missing energy searches, as the first version only included final states into SM particles. Hence $Z'$-explorer 2.0 is able to test dark matter models where the $Z'$ acts as an s-channel mediator between the Standard Model and the dark sector, a widespread benchmark employed by the ATLAS and CMS experimental collaborations. To this end, we perform here the first public reinterpretation of the most recent ATLAS mono-jet search with 139 fb$^{-1}$. In addition, the corresponding searches in the visible final states have also been updated. We illustrate the power of our code by re-obtaining public plots, and also showing novel results. In particular, we study the cases where the $Z'$ couples strongly to top quarks (top-philic), where dark matter couples with a mixture of vector and axial-vector couplings, and also perform a scan in the parameter space of a string inspired St\"uckelberg model. $Z'$-explorer 2.0 is publicly available on GitHub.