English

Invisible Quarkonium Decays as a Sensitive Probe of Dark Matter

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-06-25 v2 High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

We examine in a model-independent manner the measurements that can be performed at B-factories with sensitivity to dark matter. If a singlet scalar, pseudo-scalar, or vector is present and mediates the Standard Model - dark matter interaction, it can mediate invisible decays of quarkonium states such as the Υ\Upsilon, J/ΨJ/\Psi, and η\eta. Such scenarios have arisen in the context of supersymmetry, extended Higgs sectors, solutions the supersymmetric μ\mu problem, and extra U(1) gauge groups from grand unified theories and string theory. Existing B-factories running at the Υ(4S)\Upsilon(4S) can produce lower Υ\Upsilon resonances by emitting an Initial State Radiation (ISR) photon. Using a combination of ISR and radiative decays, the initial state of an invisibly decaying quarkonium resonance can be tagged, giving sensitivity to the spin and CP-nature of the particle that mediates standard model-dark matter interactions. These measurements can discover or place strong constraints on dark matter scenarios where the dark matter is approximately lighter than the bb-quark. For the decay chains Υ(nS)π+πΥ(1S)\Upsilon(nS) \to \pi^+ \pi^- \Upsilon(1S) (n=2,3) we analyze the dominant backgrounds and determine that with 400fb1400 fb^{-1} collected at the Υ(4S)\Upsilon(4S), the B-factories can limit BR(Υ(1S)invisible)\lsim0.1BR(\Upsilon(1S) \to invisible) \lsim 0.1%.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0506151,
  title  = {Invisible Quarkonium Decays as a Sensitive Probe of Dark Matter},
  author = {Bob McElrath},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0506151},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

20 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in PRD