Abstract
We study the validity of effective field theory (EFT) interpretations of monojet searches for dark matter at the LHC for vector and axial-vector interactions. We show that the EFT approach is valid when the mediator has mass m med greater than 2.5 TeV. We find that the current limits on the contact interaction scale Λ in the EFT apply to theories that are perturbative for dark matter mass m DM < 800 GeV. However, for all values of m DM in these theories, the mediator width is larger than the mass, so that a particle-like interpretation of the mediator is doubtful. Furthermore, consistency with the thermal relic density occurs only for 170 ≲ m DM ≲ 510 GeV. For lighter mediator masses, the EFT limit either under-estimates the true limit (because the process is resonantly enhanced) or over-estimates it (because the missing energy distribution is too soft). We give some ‘rules of thumb’ that can be used to estimate the limit on Λ (to an accuracy of ~ 50 %) for any m DM and m med from knowledge of the EFT limit. We also compare the relative sensitivities of monojet and dark matter direct detection searches finding that both dominate in different regions of the m DM - m med plane. Comparing only the EFT limit with direct searches is misleading and can lead to incorrect conclusions about the relative sensitivity of the two search approaches.
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Buchmueller, O., Dolan, M.J. & McCabe, C. Beyond effective field theory for dark matter searches at the LHC. J. High Energ. Phys. 2014, 25 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2014)025
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2014)025