Bounds on Dark Matter Interactions with Electroweak Gauge Bosons

Understand

We investigate scenarios in which dark matter interacts with the Standard Model primarily through electroweak gauge bosons.

• We employ an effective field theory framework wherein the Standard Model and the dark matter particle are the only light states in order to derive model-independent bounds.
• Bounds on such interactions are derived from dark matter production by weak boson fusion at the LHC, indirect detection searches for the products of dark matter annihilation and from the measured invisible width of the $Z^0$.
• We find that limits on the UV scale, $\Lambda$, reach weak scale values for most operators and values of the dark matter mass, thus probing the most natural scenarios in the WIMP dark matter paradigm.