Prospects on searches for baryonic Dark Matter produced in $${\varvec{b}}$$-hadron decays at LHCb

Abstract A model that can simultaneously explain Dark Matter relic density and the apparent matter anti-matter imbalance of the universe has been recently proposed. The model requires b -hadron branching fractions to Dark Matter at the per mille level. The b -hadrons decay to a dark sector baryon, $$\psi _{\mathrm{DS}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>ψ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>DS</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:math> , which has a mass in the region $$940 ~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2\le m_{\psi _{\mathrm{DS}}}\le 4430~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>940</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mi>MeV</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mo>≤</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>m</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>ψ</mml:mi> <mml:mi>DS</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>≤</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4430</mml:mn> <mml:mspace/> <mml:mi>MeV</mml:mi> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>c</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . In this paper, we discuss the sensitivity of the LHCb experiment to search for this dark baryon, covering different types of topology and giving prospects for Runs 3 and 4 of the LHC, as well as for the proposed Upgrade II. We show that the LHCb experiment can cover the entire mass range of the hypothetical dark baryon.