Dark matter search at LHC

Astrophysicists now know that 80% of the matter in the universe is `dark matter', composed of neutral and weakly interacting elementary particles that are not part of the Standard Model of particle physics. Its expected that dark matter particles can be produced at the CERN LHC. At particle colliders, dark-matter particles may be produced in pairs via some unknown intermediate state. The final-state WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) are not directly detectable, but their presence can be inferred from the recoil against a visible particle. A search is presented for dark matter produced in association with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson using 3.2 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with a hadronic jet compatible with a W or Z boson and with large missing transverse momentum are analysed. The data are consistent with the Standard Model predictions and are interpreted in terms of both an effective field theory and a simplified model containing dark matter.

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