Informal Phenomenology Seminar

With an upgraded energy and calibrated detectors, the next few years are pivotal for new physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Developments over the past year have demonstrated the power of the LHC to compliment and, in some cases, extend direct detection and galactic searches for dark matter. We present a new search for dark matter that represents the culmination of these developments, which is now the established archetype for dark matter searches in future LHC runs. In addition to an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity, we demonstrate strong exclusion of the galactic center gamma ray excess, and stronger bounds relative to spin-dependent dark matter searches. The search incorporates new approaches in jet substructure as well as state of the art QCD calculations. In its wake, we have performed some of the most precise measurements of QCD to date. Finally, we explore the future of dark matter searches and ask the question: can we make a definitive path to dark matter discovery?