Physics (Internal)

Dark Matter + Heavy Quark Production at ATLAS

This event is part of the Departmental Seminars.

Dissertation Committee: Steve Ahlen, John Butler, Michael El-Batanouny, Edward Kearns, Kenneth Lane

Abstract:

Despite making up over 80% of the matter in the universe and numerous cosmological observations, very little is actually known about dark matter. While its large-scale properties are known, important details such as the different types of dark matter particles, their quantum properties, and their interactions remain complete unknowns that are only loosely constrained by experimental results. The absence of any direct detection and the recently observed gamma ray excess from the galactic center have led to speculation that dark matter may interact more strongly with heavy quarks than with ordinary matter. In this seminar I lay out a search for the production of dark matter with preferential couplings to bottom and top quarks using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.