Simulating New Models of Dark Matter at the LHC

Dark Matter is one the largest mysteries in physics today. Given that Dark Matter cannot interact with the electromagnetic field, we cannot see it nor touch it. Certain hypotheses suggest however that Dark Matter could be comprised of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) which could plausibly be created at a particle collider with an energetic enough collision. The proposed Dark Matter particles would show up as missing energy after the collision, which would need to be discerned from the many other background particles that were created as well. To improve our chances at finding Dark Matter, scientists are proposing a new particle collider which will collide muons. The collisions will be less messy overall and require less energy since muons are fundamental point-like particles. This project aims to confirm the proposed benefits of the proposed muon collider by running particle collision simulations in a program that simulates the LHC called Madgraph. We are currently testing various configurations of proton collisions at higher energies to demonstrate that increased collision energy can make it easier to identify potential Dark Matter signatures. Our simulation framework could be used to study possible dark matter signatures at a future muon collider.