Multilepton dark matter signals

Abstract

The signatures of dark matter at the LHC commonly involve, in simplified scenarios, the production of a single particle plus large missing energy, from the undetected dark matter. However, in $Z^{\prime }$-portal scenarios anomaly cancellation requires the presence of extra dark leptons in the dark sector. We investigate the signatures of the minimal scenarios of this kind, which involve cascade decays of the extra $Z^{\prime }$ boson into the dark leptons, identifying a four-lepton signal as the most promising one. We estimate the sensitivity to this signal at the LHC, the high-luminosity LHC upgrade, a possible high-energy upgrade, as well as a future circular collider. For $Z^{\prime }$ couplings compatible with current dijet constraints the multilepton signals can reach the $5\sigma$ level already at Run 2 of the LHC. At future colliders, couplings two orders of magnitude smaller than the electroweak coupling can be probed with $5\sigma$ sensitivity.

Comments: LaTeX 29 pages. Discussions added. Final version in JHEP