Belgium

Chiara Arina

France

Benjamin Fuks

Italy

Luca Panizzi

United States

Michael Baker

South Africa

Alan Cornell

Germany

Jan Heisig

United Kingdom

Benedikt Maier

Portugal

Rute Pedro

Dominique Trischuk

Diyar Agin

Alexandre Arbey

Giorgio Arcadi

Emanuele Bagnaschi

Kehang Bai

Brazil

Disha Bhatia

Mathias Becker

Alexander Belyaev

Ferdinand Benoit

Monika Blanke

Canada

Jackson Burzynski

Jonathan Butterworth

Antimo Cagnotta

China

Lorenzo Calibbi

Linda Carpenter

Spain

Xabier Cid Vidal

Emanuele Copello

Louie Corpe

Francesco D’Eramo

Aldo Deandrea

Australia

Aman Desai

Caterina Doglioni

South Korea

Sunil Dogra

Mathias Garny

Mark Goodsell

Norway

Sohaib Hassan

Philip Harris

Julia Harz

Alejandro Ibarra

Alberto Iorio

Felix Kahlhoefer

Deepak Kar

Egypt

Shaaban Khalil

Valery Khoze

Pyungwon Ko

Sabine Kraml

Greg Landsberg

Andre Lessa

Laura Lopez-Honorez

Alberto Mariotti

Vasiliki Mitsou

Kirtimaan Mohan

Chang-Seong Moon

Colombia

Alexander Moreno Briceno

Maria Moreno Llacer

Leandre Munoz-Aillaud

Taylor Murphy

Anele Ncube

Wandile Nzuza

Clarisse Prat

Lena Rathmann

Thobani Sangweni

Dipan Sengupta

William Shepherd

Sukanya Sinha

Tim Tait

Andrea Thamm

Michel Tytgat

Zirui Wang

David Yu

Shin-Shan Yu

Publisher Erratum: $\textit{t}$-channel dark matter models – a whitepaper

This report, summarising work achieved in the context of the LHC Dark Matter Working Group, investigates the phenomenology of $\textit{t}$-channel dark matter models, spanning minimal setups with a single dark matter candidate and mediator to more complex constructions closer to UV-complete models. For each considered class of models, we examine collider, cosmological and astrophysical implications. In addition, we explore scenarios with either promptly decaying or long-lived particles, as well as featuring diverse dark matter production mechanisms in the early universe. By providing a unified analysis framework, numerical tools and guidelines, this work aims to support future experimental and theoretical efforts in exploring $\textit{t}$-channel dark matter models at colliders and in cosmology.

$\textit{t}$-channel dark matter models – a whitepaper

We study the phenomenology of superheavy decaying dark matter with mass around 1010 GeV which can arise in the low-energy limit of string compactifications. Generic features of string theory setups (such as high scale supersymmetry breaking and epochs of early matter domination driven by string moduli) can accommodate superheavy dark matter with the correct relic abundance. In addition, stringy instantons induce tiny R-parity violating couplings which make dark matter unstable with a lifetime well above the age of the Universe. Adopting a model-independent approach, we compute the flux and spectrum of high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos from three-body decays of superheavy dark matter and constrain its mass-lifetime plane with current observations and future experiments. We show that these bounds have only a mild dependence on the exact nature of neutralino dark matter and its decay channels. Applying these constraints to an explicit string model sets an upper bound of   <math> <mi>O</mi> </math>  $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (0.1) on the string coupling, ensuring that the effective field theory is in the perturbative regime.

Rouzbeh Allahverdi

Marco Chianese

Michele Cicoli

Fabio Maltoni

Daniele Massaro

Poland

Jacek Osiński

Phenomenology of superheavy decaying dark matter from string theory

We analyze six classes of <math><mi>t</mi></math>-channel dark matter simplified models in which the Standard Model field content is extended by a colored mediator and a dark matter state. The two new states are enforced to be odd under a new parity, while all Standard Model fields are taken even so that dark matter stability is guaranteed. We study several possibilities for the spin of the new particles and the self-conjugate property of the dark matter, and we focus on model configurations in which the dark matter couples to the right-handed up quark for simplicity. We investigate how the parameter spaces of the six models can be constrained by current and future cosmological, astrophysical and collider searches, and we highlight the strong complementary between those probes. Our results demonstrate that scenarios featuring a complex (non self-conjugate) dark matter field are excluded by cosmology and astrophysics alone, the only possibility to avoid these bounds being to invoke very weak couplings and mechanisms such as conversion-driven freeze-out. For models with self-conjugate dark matter, mediator and dark matter masses are pushed deep into the TeV regime, with the lower limits on the mediator mass reaching 3 to 4 TeV and those on the dark matter mass 1 to 2 TeV. In large parts of the parameter space these strong bounds are driven by same-sign mediator pair production, a channel so far not considered in the experimental analyses embedding <math><mi>t</mi></math>-channel dark matter model interpretations.

Michael Krämer

Luca Mantani

Comprehensive exploration of <math><mi>t</mi></math>-channel simplified models of dark matter

The singlet scalar Higgs-portal model provides one of the simplest explanations of dark matter in our Universe. Its Higgs resonant region, <math><msub><mi>m</mi><mi>DM</mi></msub><mo>≈</mo><msub><mi>m</mi><mi>h</mi></msub><mo>/</mo><mn>2</mn></math>, has gained particular attention, being able to reconcile the tension between the relic density measurement and direct detection constraints. Interestingly, this region is also preferred as an explanation of the Fermi-LAT <math><mi>γ</mi></math>-ray Galactic center excess. We perform a detailed study of this model using <math><mi>γ</mi></math>-ray data from the Galactic center and from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and combine them with cosmic-ray antiproton data from the AMS-02 experiment that shows a compatible excess. In the calculation of the relic density, we take into account effects of early kinetic decoupling relevant for resonant annihilation. The model provides excellent fits to the astrophysical data either in the case the dark matter candidate constitutes all or a subdominant fraction of the observed relic density. We show projections for future direct detection and collider experiments to probe these scenarios.

Mattia Di Mauro

Nicolao Fornengo

Dark matter in the Higgs resonance region

Automated tools for the computation of particle physics’ processes have become the backbone of phenomenological studies beyond the standard model. Here, we present MadDM v3.2. This release enables the fully automated computation of loop-induced dark-matter annihilation processes, relevant for indirect detection observables. Special emphasis lies on the annihilation into  $$\gamma X$$  <math> <mrow> <mi>γ</mi> <mi>X</mi> </mrow> </math>  , where  $$X=\gamma , Z, h$$  <math> <mrow> <mi>X</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mi>γ</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>Z</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>h</mi> </mrow> </math>   or any new particle even under the dark symmetry. These processes lead to the sharp spectral feature of monochromatic gamma lines – a smoking-gun signature of dark matter in our Galaxy. MadDM provides the predictions for the respective fluxes near-Earth and derives constraints from the gamma-ray line searches by Fermi-LAT and HESS. As an application, we discuss the implications for the viable parameter space of a top-philic t-channel mediator model and the inert doublet model.

Olivier Mattelaer

Indirect dark-matter detection with MadDM v3.2 – Lines and Loops

We present a framework for the construction of portal effective theory (PETs) that couple effective field theories of the Standard Model (SM) to light hidden messenger fields. Using this framework we construct electroweak and strong scale PETs that couple the SM to messengers carrying spin zero, one half, or one. The electroweak scale PETs encompass all portal operators up to dimension five, while the strong scale PETs additionally contain all portal operators of dimension six and seven that contribute at leading order to quark-flavour violating transitions. Using the strong scale PETs, we define a set of portal currents that couple hidden sectors to QCD, and construct portal chiral perturbation theory (χPTs) that relate these currents to the light pseudoscalar mesons. We estimate the coefficients of the portal χPT Lagrangian that are not fixed by SM observations using non-perturbative matching techniques and give a complete list of the resulting one- and two-meson portal interactions. From those, we compute transition amplitudes for three golden channels that are used in hidden sector searches at fixed target experiments: i) charged kaon decay into a charged pion and a spin zero messenger, ii) charged kaon decay into a charged lepton and a spin one half messenger, and iii) neutral pion decay into a photon and a spin one messenger. Finally, we compare these amplitudes to specific expressions for models featuring light scalar particles, axion-like particles, heavy neutral leptons, and dark photons.

Switzerland

Jan Hajer

Philipp Klose

Portal Effective Theories. A framework for the model independent description of light hidden sector interactions

We consider the treatment of fermionic dark matter interacting with photons via dimension-5 and -6 effective operators, arguing that one should always use hypercharge gauge field form factors, instead of those of the photon. Beyond the simple observation that the electromagnetic form factor description breaks down at the electroweak scale, we show how the additional couplings to the Z boson predicted by the hypercharge form factors modify the relic density calculation and indirect detection limits for dark matter masses of a few tens of GeV and above. Furthermore, constraints from the invisible Z decay width can be competitive for masses below 10 GeV. We review the phenomenology of hypercharge form factors at the LHC as well as for direct and indirect detection experiments. We highlight where the electromagnetic and hypercharge descriptions lead to wildly different conclusions about the viable parameter space and the relative sensitivity of various probes, namely vector boson fusion versus mono-jet constraints from the LHC, and indirect versus direct searches, for larger dark matter masses. We find that the dimension-5 operators are strongly constrained by direct detection bounds, while for dimension-6 operators LHC mono-jet searches are competitive or better than the other probes we consider.

Andrew Cheek

Ken Mimasu

Luca Pagani

Light and darkness: consistently coupling dark matter to photons via effective operators

A comprehensive analysis of cosmological and collider constraints is presented for three simplified models characterised by a dark matter candidate (real scalar, Majorana fermion and real vector) and a coloured mediator (fermion, scalar and fermion respectively) interacting with the right-handed up quark of the Standard Model. Constraints from dark matter direct and indirect detection and relic density are combined with bounds originating from the re-interpretation of a full LHC run 2 ATLAS search targeting final states with multiple jets and missing transverse energy. Projections for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC are also provided to assess future exclusion and discovery reaches, which show that analogous future search strategies will not allow for a significant improvement compared with the present status. From the cosmological point of view, we demonstrate that thermal dark matter is largely probed (and disfavoured) by constraints from current direct and indirect detection experiments. These bounds and their future projections have moreover the potential of probing the whole parameter space when combined with the expectation of the high-luminosity phase of the LHC.

Hanna Mies

Sweden

Jakub Salko

Closing in on -channel Simplified Dark Matter Models

We present the DMSimpt model implementation in FeynRules, which aims to offer a unique general framework allowing for all simulations relevant for simplified t-channel dark matter models at colliders and for the complementary cosmology calculations. We describe how to match next-to-leading-order QCD fixed-order calculations with parton showers to derive robust bounds and predictions in the context of LHC dark matter searches, and moreover validate two model restrictions (relevant for Dirac and Majorana fermionic dark matter respectively) to exemplify how to evaluate dark matter observables to constrain the model parameter space. More importantly, we emphasise how to achieve these results by using a combination of publicly available automated tools, and discuss how dark matter predictions are sensitive to the model file and software setup. All files, together with illustrative Mathematica notebooks, are available from the URL http://feynrules.irmp.ucl.ac.be/wiki/DMsimpt.

A universal framework for t-channel dark matter models