Shedding Light on Dark Matter at the LHC with Machine Learning

Abstract

We investigate a WIMP dark matter (DM) candidate in the form of a singlino-dominated lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) within the $Z_3$-symmetric Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). This framework gives rise to regions of parameter space where DM is obtained via co-annihilation with nearby higgsino-like electroweakinos and DM direct detection~signals are suppressed, the so-called ``blind spots''. On the other hand, collider signatures remain promising due to enhanced radiative decay modes of higgsinos into the singlino-dominated LSP and photons, rather than into leptons or hadrons. Compared to MSSM scenarios with light bino- and wino-like electroweakinos, the NMSSM allows for final states with multiple photons arising from cascade radiative decays, providing a distinctive collider signature. This motivates searches for radiatively decaying neutralinos, however, these signals face substantial background challenges, as the decay products are typically soft due to the small mass-splits ($Δm$) between the LSP and the higgsino-like coannihilation partners. We apply a data-driven Machine Learning (ML) analysis that improves sensitivity to these subtle signals, offering a powerful complement to traditional search strategies to discover a new physics scenario. Using an LHC integrated luminosity of $100~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ at $14~\mathrm{TeV}$, the method achieves a $5σ$ discovery reach for higgsino masses up to $225~\mathrm{GeV}$ with $Δm\!\lesssim\!12~\mathrm{GeV}$, and a $2σ$ exclusion up to $285~\mathrm{GeV}$ with $Δm\!\lesssim\!20~\mathrm{GeV}$. These results highlight~the power of collider searches to probe DM candidates that remain hidden from current~direct detection experiments, and provide a motivation for a search by the LHC collaborations using ML methods.