Even though there is a multitude of observational evidence from cosmology and astrophysics, the standard model does not include a suitable dark matter candidate and therefore physics beyond the standard model is necessary. There are hypotheses of what the particle candidate could be coming from theories such as supersymmetry or extra dimensions. The processes producing these particles are understood very well from the theoretical perspective. The problem is that these processes have not been observed in any detectors. Therefore the nature of the dark matter remains unknown. However, it is clear that the dark matter-particle interacts with ordinary matter through gravity and in general, candidates may also interact through the weak force. These candidates are called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. Therefore, by studying weak processes (weak in the sense that the processes are interactions mediated by a force weaker than the Electro-Magnetic and Quantum-Chromo dynamical-forces, not necessarily the weak force of the standard model) in the large hadron collider it may be possible to pose constraints on the dark matter signatures. One possible process which specifically involves the standard model electroweak interaction, which will be the model for the project, is the emission of scalar dark matter particles from the Z boson,which would result in a final state characterized by a Z boson and missing transverse energy. Simulations of the model and calculations of the cross section are done for different masses, ranging from 20−680 GeV, of the scalar dark matter particle and then compared to a standard model background process. Investigations are made whether or not it would be possible to detect darkmatter signals in the background. With the assumptions made, the results indicate that a signal from dark matter with a mass of around 40−150 GeV could not be rejected up to 5σ.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-449090 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Bertilsson, Magnus |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Högenergifysik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | FYSAST ; FYSKAND1142 |
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