Potential explanation of why both dark matter WIMPs and supersymmetry have so far not been observed, and prospects for observing a new dark matter candidate at the LHC or in other collider experiments

In the words of two recent papers, "Supersymmetric models of particle physics have been under assault from both collider search experiments and direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments'' [1] and "With the advent of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and a new generation of astroparticle experiments, the moment of truth has come for WIMPs [weakly interacting massive particles]: either we will discover them in the next five to ten years, or we will witness their inevitable decline.'' Here we will consider the potential of the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the LHC, and proposed future collider experiments, for discovering either the neutralinos of supersymmetry or a newly proposed kind of dark matter candidate. The recently proposed particle has weaker couplings to W and Z bosons, and therefore lower cross sections for production, than the neutralino. In addition, its presence permits supersymmetric partners to have masses at higher energy scales. The existence of the new particle would then help to explain why both dark matter WIMPs and supersymmetry have so far eluded detection.

[1] Howard Baer, Vernon Barger, Dibyashree Sengupta, and Xerxes Tata, arXiv:1803.11210 [hep-ph]

[2] Gianfranco Bertone, Nature 68, 389 (2010), arXiv:1011.3532 [astro-ph.CO].