Complementarity of collider + non collider searches to the dark matter problem
by
Thomas Rizzo(SLAC)
→
Europe/Stockholm
Description
The true nature of dark matter (DM) remains mysterious and the number of theoretical ideas about what it might be continues to grow. One of the fortuitous aspects of the WIMP DM scenario is that it can be simultaneously probed by both direct and indirect experimental search techniques as well as by the LHC. Another lucky aspect of WIMP DM is that, on many occasions, the essential physics can be captured through the use of effective field theories (EFT) or simplified models (SM) as well as via UV-complete theories such as supersymmetry (SUSY). I will briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these different descriptions when comparing and combining a wide spectrum of DM experimental results. I will then more fully examine the supersymmetric, 19-parameter p(henomenological)MSSM as a general framework for complementarity studies of neutralino DM. I will discuss the parameter space sensitivities of the DM searches at the 7/8 (and eventually 13/14) TeV LHC, Fermi, CTA, Ice-Cube/DeepCore, COUPP and LUX/LZ. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these experiments will then be examined and contrasted and their inter-dependent roles in covering the model parameter space are identified. I will show that these different experiments essentially explore orthogonal territories and that all will be necessary to completely cover the SUSY WIMP parameter space especially if a discovery is made. We will see that the different experiments have widely varying sensitivities to the various DM annihilation mechanisms, some of which would be completely excluded in the case of null results. The role of a possible 100 TeV-scale collider for DM searches will be briefly described.
