Dark Matter Stabilization Symmetries and Long-Lived Particles at the Large Hadron Collider

Many popular models of new physics beyond the Standard Model use a parity to stabilize weakly interacting, dark matter candidates. We examine the potential for the CERN Large Hadron Collider to distinguish models with parity stabilized dark matter from models in which the dark matter is stabilized by other symmetries. In this letter, we focus on signatures involving long-lived particles and large amounts of missing transverse energy. To illustrate these signatures, we consider three models from the literature which are representative of a more general class of models with non-traditional stabilization symmetries. The most optimistic scenario can observe the proposed signature with a minimum of 10 inverse fb of integrated luminosity at design center of mass energy. It will probably take considerable longer to validate the stabilizing symmetry is not a simple parity. In all, we emphasize that the underlying symmetry that stabilizes weakly interacting dark matter has tremendous implications for the LHC and our understanding of the nature of dark matter.