Mysterious Dark Matter with a Rare Form of Electromagnetism*

Most theories and models assume dark matter (DM) interacts through exotic forces, but this research develops a new methodology, including improved particle detectors for the LHC experiments, to discover a DM particle 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. The anapole dark matter (ADM) model is implemented into MadGraph and performs 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 provides insight into how often ADM particles (from PPF) at the LHC are expected to be produced and the discovery signature inside the Compact Muon Solenoid (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 mass to 1400 GeV.