Search for an invisible scalar in $$ t\overline{t} $$ final states at the LHC

Abstract

Abstract We use the current $$ t\overline{t} $$ t t ¯ experimental analysis to look for Dark Matter (DM) particles hidden in the final state. We present a phenomenological study where we successfully perform the reconstruction of a $$ t\overline{t} $$ t t ¯ system in the presence of a scalar mediator Y0, that couples to both Standard Model (SM) and to DM particles. We use a MadGraph5_aMC@NLO simplified DM model, where signal samples of pp →$$ t\overline{t}Y $$ t t ¯ Y 0 are generated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with both Charge-Parity (CP) -even and CP-odd couplings of Y0 to the top quarks. Different mass scales for the Y0 mediator are considered, from the low mass region (~ 0 GeV) to masses close to the Higgs boson mass (125 GeV). The dileptonic final states of the $$ t\overline{t} $$ t t ¯ system were used in our analysis. The reconstruction of the $$ t\overline{t} $$ t t ¯ system is done with a kinematic fit, without reconstructing the mediator. All relevant SM backgrounds for the dileptonic $$ t\overline{t} $$ t t ¯ search at the LHC are considered. Furthermore, CP angular observables were used to probe the CP-nature of the coupling between the mediator and top-quarks, which allowed to set confidence level (CL) limits for those Yukawa couplings as a function of the mediator mass.