Mysterious Dark Matter with a Rare Form of Electromagnetism

While most theories and models assume dark matter (DM) interacts through exotic forces not encountered in everyday life, this research has developed a new methodology, including improved particle detectors for the LHC experiments, to discover a DM particle that makes use of the same force that makes magnets stick to your refrigerator, that is electrically neutral, has a similar mass as a proton, the same spin as an electron, and possesses a form of electromagnetism called an anapole. This research implements the anapole dark matter (ADM) model into a software package called MadGraph and includes performed simulations of ADM production via photon-photon fusion (PPF) in glancing proton-proton collisions. The evolution of the cross-section and kinematic distributions with varying ADM masses is studied, which provides insight into how often ADM particles at the LHC are expected to be produced and the corresponding discovery signature inside the CMS detector. The current proton-proton collision data at CMS provides discovery potential for ADM particles up to masses of 1000 GeV. Over the next 10 years, the LHC is expected to deliver over 10 times the amount of data currently available, expanding the discovery reach to 1400 GeV.