Search For Dark Matter In Invisible Higgs Boson Decays With The Atlas Detector At The Lhc

This thesis reports on the search for dark matter in data taken with the ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The identification of dark matter and the determination of its properties are among the highest priorities in elementary particle physics and cosmology. The most likely candidate, a weakly interacting massive particle, could be produced in the high energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis presented here is unique in looking for dark matter produced together with a Higgs boson that decays into its dominant decay mode, a pair of b quarks. If dark matter were seen in this mode, we would learn directly about the production mechanism because of the presence of the Higgs boson. This thesis develops the search technique and presents the most stringent production limit to date.

This thesis presents a search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson using the vector boson fusion channel. This uses 36 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data at [square root] s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The experimental methods for understanding the signal and background processes as well as detector effects are described in detail. The search is carried out in several regions defined by kinematic requirements on the final-state objects, and the observed event yields are used in a profile-likelihood fit in order to constrain the backgrounds. The results are interpreted using a modified frequentist method and are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectations. An upper limit of 34% (28% expected) at 95% C.L. is placed on the invisible branching ratio of the Higgs boson. Re-interpretation of these results in terms of dark matter is also discussed, in the context of the Higgs portal and other simplified models.

This thesis describes the search for Dark Matter at the LHC in the mono-jet plus missing transverse momentum final state, using the full dataset recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS Experiment. It is the first time that the number of jets is not explicitly restricted to one or two, thus increasing the sensitivity to new signals. Instead, a balance between the most energetic jet and the missing transverse momentum is required, thus selecting mono-jet-like final states. Collider searches for Dark Matter have typically used signal models employing effective field theories (EFTs), even when comparing to results from direct and indirect detection experiments, where the difference in energy scale renders many such comparisons invalid. The thesis features the first robust and comprehensive treatment of the validity of EFTs in collider searches, and provides a means by which the different classifications of Dark Matter experiments can be compared on a sound and fair basis.

Abstract: A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 fb−1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s√ = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of 0.145 is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of 0.103. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 GeV to 2 TeV are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 pb for a scalar boson mass of 50 GeV to 0.1 pb at a mass of 2 TeV

This dissertation describes a search for the invisible decays of dark matter particles produced in association with a Z boson, where the latter decays to a charged lepton pair. The dataset for this search includes 13.3 1/fb of collisions recorded in 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. The invisible particles manifest themselves as missing transverse momentum, or MET, in the detector, while the charged leptons of interest are electron (e+e-) or muon (mu+mu-) pairs. The models simulated for this study are vector mediated simplified models with Dirac fermionic dark matter particles with couplings g_q = 0.25, g_X = 1 and g_l = 0 . The main background to this analysis, ZZ->llvv, is irreducible, as it shares the same signature as the signal. It is estimated with Monte Carlo simulations including contributions from both qq->ZZ and gg->ZZ production modes. Where possible, other backgrounds are estimated using data-driven techniques and reduced through various selection criteria. The final search is performed by looking for a deviation from the Standard Model background expectation in the MET distribution using two signal regions, e+e- and mu+mu-. This is done using statistical tools to make a likelihood fit and set a 95% confidence level limit as no deviations are found. Limits are placed on the presented model of dark matter for mediator masses up to 400 GeV and for a range of dark matter masses from 1 to ~200 GeV.

This book discusses searches for Dark Matter at the CERN’s LHC, the world’s most powerful accelerator. It introduces the relevant theoretical framework and includes an in-depth discussion of the Effective Field Theory approach to Dark Matter production and its validity, as well as an overview of the formalism of Simplified Dark Matter models. Despite overwhelming astrophysical evidence for Dark Matter and numerous experimental efforts to detect it, the nature of Dark Matter still remains a mystery and has become one of the hottest research topics in fundamental physics. Two searches for Dark Matter are presented, performed on data collected with the ATLAS experiment. They analyze missing-energy final states with a jet or with top quarks. The analyses are explained in detail, and the outcomes and their interpretations are discussed, also in view of the precedent analysis of theoretical approaches. Given its depth of coverage, the book represents an excellent reference guide for all physicists interested in understanding the theoretical and experimental considerations relevant to Dark Matter searches at the LHC.

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the Higgs boson couplings and mass, and searched for invisible Higgs boson decays, using multiple production and decay channels with up to 4.7 fb-1 of pp collision data at √s=7 TeV and 20.3 fb-1 at √s=8 TeV. In the current study, the measured production and decay rates of the observed Higgs boson in the [gamma][gamma], ZZ, W W , Z[gamma], bb, [tau] [tau] , and [mu][mu] decay channels, along with results from the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top-quark pair, are used to probe the scaling of the couplings with mass. The limits are set on parameters in extensions of the Standard Model including a composite Higgs boson, an additional electroweak singlet, and two-Higgs-doublet models. Together with the measured mass of the scalar Higgs boson in the [gamma][gamma] and ZZ decay modes, a lower limit is set on the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass of mA > 370 GeV in the "hMSSM" simplified Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Results from direct searches for heavy Higgs bosons are also interpreted in the hMSSM. Finally, direct searches for invisible Higgs boson decays in the vector-boson fusion and associated production of a Higgs boson with W/Z (Z → ll, W/Z → jj) modes are statistically combined to set an upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.25. As a result, the use of the measured visible decay rates in a more general coupling fit improves the upper limit to 0.23, constraining a Higgs portal model of dark matter.

The absence of new physics at the TeV scale observed thus far at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) motivates an increasing focus on searches for weakly-coupled new particles and exotic signatures. In particular, particles with macroscopic mean proper lifetimes, known as long-lived particles (LLPs), are of significant interest due to their ability to elude the majority of searches which rely on the assumption that Beyond Standard Model particles decay close to the primary interaction point. Many models which aim to solve various issues with the Standard Model (SM) introduce new particles with lifetimes that are either unconstrained, or even shown to prefer the macroscopic regime. These theories often point to the Higgs boson as a possible portal to new physics, with exotic Higgs decays being the primary phenomenological consequence and means of discovery. It is well motivated both from theory and experimental constraints to consider the scenario in which the particles produced in these exotic decays have macroscopic proper lifetimes and give rise to unique detector signatures. This work describes a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to two long-lived, neutral, spin-0 particles which subsequently decay to pairs of b quarks, giving the striking signature of displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS inner detector. Several other ATLAS searches have probed this decay topology previously, excluding branching ratios of the Higgs boson to LLPs of more than 10% for proper lifetimes greater than 100mm. These searches relied on dedicated triggers designed to select events with LLPs decaying in the ATLAS calorimeter or muon spectrometer. The lack of an equivalent trigger for LLP decays in the ATLAS inner detector has been a limiting factor in probing LLP lifetimes less than 100mm. To circumvent the difficulty of triggering on LLP decays, the search presented in this thesis exploits the ZH associated production mode, relying on leptonic trigger signatures to select interesting events. This is the first search for Higgs boson decays into LLPs to exploit this analysis methodology and additionally makes use of several novel methods for both background rejection and background estimation. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed, and upper limits are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs . Depending on the mass of the LLP, branching ratios greater than 10% are excluded for lifetimes as small as 4mm and as large as 100mm, probing an important gap in the ATLAS exotic Higgs decay programme. In comparison to the previous searches for Higgs decays to LLPs, these are among the most stringent limits placed on this scenario, and for LLPs with masses below 40 GeV these results represent the strongest existing constraints on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs in this lifetime regime.