Title: Discovering Dark Matter with Colliders

Speaker: Dr. Nishita Desai, CNRS-Université Montpellier

Abstract: Particle collision experiments are the best way to probe the fundamental constituents of the Universe and their interactions. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, expected to run till 2035 with the highest collision energy achieved so far, will collect an unprecedented volume of data and allow us a glimpse of new particles so far hidden from view. In particular, it can be used to look for Dark Matter, which constitutes more than 80% of the cosmic matter content. In this talk, I will give an overview of the computational machinery we have developed to discover new particles at a collision experiment. Using this machinery, I will demonstrate (a) how different theories of Dark Matter can be tested at the LHC and (b) how current search strategies should be modified to maximise its discovery potential. I also show the complementarity of astrophysical and collider searches for dark matter, demonstrating how colliders fill a gap that is inaccessible to astrophysical methods. Finally, I will comment on the continued importance of post-LHC collider experiments to probe well-motivated dark matter models.