Search For Dark Matter Produced In Association With A Higgs Boson Decaying To A Pair Of Bottom Quarks In Proton Proton Collisions At Sqrts

A search for dark matter is performed using events with large missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson decaying either to a pair of bottom quarks or to a pair of photons. The data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse-femtobarns. Results are interpreted in the context of a Z'-two-Higgs-doublet model, where a high-mass resonance Z' decays into a pseudoscalar boson A and a CP-even scalar Higgs boson, and the A decays to a pair of dark matter particles. No significant excesses are observed over the background prediction. Combining results from the two decay channels yields exclusion limits in the signal cross section in the m[Z']-m[A] phase space. The observed data exclude, for Z' coupling strength g[Z'] = 0.8 and m[A] = 300 GeV for example, the Z' mass range of 600 to 1860 GeV. This is the first result on a search for dark matter produced in association with a Higgs boson that includes constraints on h to gamma-gamma obtained at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV.

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 study reports on a search for dark matter pair production in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of bottom quarks, using data from 20.3 fb–1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The decay of the Higgs boson is reconstructed as a high-momentum bb¯ system with either a pair of small-radius jets, or a single large-radius jet with substructure. The observed data are found to be consistent with the expected Standard Model backgrounds. Model-independent upper limits are placed on the visible cross sections for events with a Higgs boson decaying into bb¯ and large missing transverse momentum with thresholds ranging from 150 to 400 GeV. Results are interpreted using a simplified model with a Z' gauge boson decaying into different Higgs bosons predicted in a two-Higgs-doublet model, of which the heavy pseudoscalar Higgs decays into a pair of dark matter particles. Exclusion limits are also presented for the mass scales of various effective field theory operators that describe the interaction between dark matter particles and the Higgs boson.

If Dark Matter particles interact with Standard Model particles, it could be possible to pair produce Dark Matter particles in association with a detectable Standard Model particle at a collider such as the LHC. If this associated particle is a Higgs boson, the process is called ``mono-Higgs,'' since the resulting signature is a single Higgs boson balanced by missing energy from the undetected Dark Matter particles. Various Dark Matter models predict that this process could result in very boosted Higgs bosons that, if they decay to a pair of b-quarks, are reconstructed as jets using boosted Higgs tagging techniques. This thesis presents the results of a mono-Higgs search using 79.8 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector. The observed data are found to be consistent with the expected Standard Model backgrounds. The results are interpreted and exclusion limits are set using a Z' two-Higgs-doublet model where the pseudo-scalar Higgs particle, A, couples to Dark Matter. In order to increase the sensitivity reach of the search, new boosted Higgs tagging techniques are explored and a variable radius track jet Higgs tagging technique is employed.

Using 3.2 fb^-1 of sqrt(s) =13TeV proton-proton data collected in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, new limits were imposed on the associated production of Dark Matter with a 125GeV Higgs boson which decays into a pair of b-quarks. The final state of the signal is a pair of b-quark jets and large Missing Transverse Momentum attributed to the DM escaping the detector. The dominant backgrounds were simulated. These were subject to selection requirements to increase signal to background ratio. Three regions were designated based on the number of leptons in the event. 0 lepton events made up the signal region. Events with 1 and 2 leptons were control regions. Similar selection requirements were applied to the control regions as in the signal region, in order to examine a similar phase space. A blinding region was established in the 0 lepton region over the mbb distribution to mask where a reconstructed 125GeV Higgs boson would appear. The control regions and the side bands in the signal region were then fit to the mbb data distribution. Unblinding of the signal region did not result in the discovery of the decay channel, but allowed limits to be imposed.

This work presents the search for Dark Matter particles associated with the Higgs Boson decaying into a b b-bar quark pair. The dark matter search result is based on proton-proton collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector during Run II. The results are interpreted in the context of a simplified model (Z'-2HDM) which describes the interaction of dark matter and standard model particles via new heavy mediator particles. The new powerful Higgs tagging techniques, which exploit the jet substructure and heavy flavor information to a large extent, are developed to improve the search sensitivity of the search. The target physics signals are signature with an optimized search region and interpreted with background estimation result statistically.

A search is presented for particle dark matter produced in association with a pair of top quarks in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb-1. This search requires the presence of one lepton, multiple jets, and large missing transverse energy. No excess of events is found above the SM expectation, and upper limits are derived on the production cross section. Interpreting the findings in the context of a scalar contact interaction between fermionic dark matter particles and top quarks, lower limits on the interaction scale are set. These limits are also interpreted in terms of the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections for the spin-independent scalar operator and they complement direct searches for dark matter particles in the low mass region.