Collider Searches for Dark Matter through the Higgs Lens

TL;DR

This paper reviews collider-based searches for dark matter using Higgs boson signatures, exploring theoretical models and recent experimental results from the LHC to uncover potential connections between dark matter and electroweak symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical frameworks and summarizes recent experimental searches for dark matter involving Higgs-like particles at the LHC.

Findings

Constraints on dark matter models from collider data

Potential signals or limits from Higgs-associated dark matter searches

Guidance for future collider experiments in dark matter detection

Abstract

Despite the fact that dark matter constitutes one of the cornerstones of the standard cosmological paradigm, its existence has so far only been inferred from astronomical observations and its microscopic nature remains elusive. Theoretical arguments suggest that dark matter might be connected to the symmetry-breaking mechanism of the electroweak interactions or of other symmetries extending the Standard Model of particle physics. The resulting Higgs bosons, including the $125 \, {\rm GeV}$ spin-0 particle discovered recently at the Large Hadron Collider therefore represent a unique tool to search for dark matter candidates at collider experiments. This article reviews some of the relevant theoretical models as well as the results from the searches for dark matter in signatures that involve a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider.