Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026
07:46
Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
Probing dark matter at the LHC using vector boson fusion processes
Andres G Delannoy1, Bhaskar Dutta, Alfredo Gurrola
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|August 27, 2013
Summary
Researchers explored supersymmetric dark matter detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using vector boson fusion. The study shows the LHC can probe wino dark matter up to 600 GeV with sufficient data.
Area of Science:
- High Energy Physics
- Particle Physics
- Cosmology
Background:
- Vector boson fusion (VBF) processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are sensitive to new physics phenomena.
- Searching for dark matter is a key goal in modern physics, with implications for cosmology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the feasibility of searching for supersymmetric dark matter using VBF processes at the LHC.
- To explore the potential of the LHC in determining dark matter relic density for specific models.
Main Methods:
- Simulating VBF processes at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy.
- Analyzing final states with two VBF jets and large missing transverse energy.
- Studying wino and bino-Higgsino dark matter scenarios.
Main Results:
- The LHC can probe wino dark matter with masses up to approximately 600 GeV.
- A integrated luminosity of 1000 fb⁻¹ is required to reach this sensitivity.
- The study provides prospects for dark matter relic density determination.
Conclusions:
- Vector boson fusion offers a promising channel for discovering supersymmetric dark matter at the LHC.
- Future LHC data could significantly constrain dark matter models and probe relic density.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Overview of Microscopy Techniques
The early pioneers of microscopy opened a window into the invisible world of microorganisms. In 1830, Joseph Jackson Lister created an essentially modern light microscope. The 20th century saw the development of microscopes that leveraged nonvisible light, such as fluorescence microscopy that uses an ultraviolet light source and electron microscopy that uses short-wavelength electron beams. These advances significantly improved magnification, image resolution, and contrast. By comparison, the...
01:10Detection of Black Holes
Although black holes were theoretically postulated in the 1920s, they remained outside the domain of observational astronomy until the 1970s.
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
01:19Thomson's e/m Experiment
In a beam of charged particles created by a heated cathode, the particles move at different speeds. However, many applications need a beam with uniform particle speeds. An arrangement known as a velocity selector uses electric and magnetic fields to pick particles with a particular speed from the beam.
A particle with charge q, speed v, and mass m enters an area from the top, where the magnetic and electric fields are perpendicular both to the particle's motion and to one another. The magnetic...
A particle with charge q, speed v, and mass m enters an area from the top, where the magnetic and electric fields are perpendicular both to the particle's motion and to one another. The magnetic...
03:20Nuclear Transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one nuclide into another. It can occur by the radioactive decay of a nucleus, or the reaction of a nucleus with another particle. The first manmade nucleus was produced in Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory in 1919 by a transmutation reaction, the bombardment of one type of nuclei with other nuclei or with neutrons. Rutherford bombarded nitrogen-14 atoms with high-speed α particles from a natural radioactive isotope of radium and observed protons being...
01:12Fermi Level Dynamics
The vacuum level denotes the energy threshold required for an electron to escape from a material surface. It is usually positioned above the conduction band of a semiconductor and acts as a benchmark for comparing electron energies within various materials.
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
01:15Transmission Electron Microscopy
In 1931, physicist Ernst Ruska—building on the idea that magnetic fields can direct an electron beam just as lenses can direct a beam of light in an optical microscope—developed the first prototype of the electron microscope. This development led to the development of the field of electron microscopy. In the transmission electron microscope (TEM), electrons are produced by a hot tungsten element and accelerated by a potential difference in an electron gun, which gives them up to 400 keV in...