Displaced Dark Matter at Colliders

Understand

Models in which the dark matter is very weakly coupled to the observable sector may explain the observed dark matter density, either as a "superWIMP" or as "asymmetric dark matter." Both types of models predict displaced vertices at colliders, with a rich variety of possible phenomenology.

• We classify the cases in which the decays can naturally occur inside particle detectors at the LHC, with particular focus on the nontrivial scenarios where the decaying particle is invisible.
• Identification of the position and timing of these invisible displaced vertices significantly improves the prospects of reconstructing the new physics in models such as supersymmetry.
• In many cases, reconstruction of the visible products of the displaced decay can determine the dark matter mass, allowing the dark matter density to be predicted from collider data.