Abstract

The nature of dark matter remains one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in physics. A long-standing popular idea is that dark matter is a new kind of particle which interacts weakly with other forms of matter. With evidence for dark matter’s existence based on cosmological arguments and astrophysical observations only, a number of experiments are racing to be the first to claim detection. If dark matter is indeed a new particle, the LHC offers a unique opportunity to produce and study its interactions. Searches for dark matter production at CMS target simple event topologies in the “monomania” approach to discovery. While simple, they are nonetheless a powerful tool in the search for dark matter, providing complementary constraints in the parameter space of phenomenological models compared to those from other experiments. This talk will cover searches for dark matter at CMS , including recent results in the monojet and other “monomania” final states.