Soft-Dimuon Signature from Two-Component Scalar Dark Matter at the LHC

Abstract

We explore the potential of the Large Hadron Collider to probe a two-component scalar dark matter scenario in the opposite-sign dimuon plus missing transverse energy final state, accompanied by a hard jet. The signal features a soft dimuon system with an invariant mass well below $m_Z$. We consider a 3-Higgs Doublet Model with one active and two inert scalar doublets, where a $Z_2 \times Z_2'$ symmetry stabilises the lightest neutral scalar in each inert sector, yielding two scalar DM candidates. The relevant parameter space is mapped in terms of the two DM masses and the mass splittings between each DM candidate and its corresponding next-to-lightest scalar state. We perform a detector-level Monte Carlo analysis and design a dedicated cut-based selection, including a transverse-mass requirement adapted to the signal topology. For a representative benchmark, we obtain $S/B\simeq 9.8%$ and a statistical-only significance of $S/\sqrt{B}=1.35$ at Run 3 with ${\cal L}=300~{\rm fb}^{-1}$, increasing to $S/\sqrt{B}=4.93$ under a statistical-only extrapolation to ${\cal L}=4~{\rm ab}^{-1}$. Before the full selection, the two dark sectors generate a double-bump structure in the dimuon invariant-mass distribution. After the cuts optimised for inclusive sensitivity, however, this feature is not statistically robust enough to establish the two-component origin of the signal. The benchmark is underabundant and is interpreted as a subdominant two-component DM scenario, while the collider analysis remains independent of its cosmological abundance. Although the numerical study is carried out in the I(2+1)HDM, the results are applicable to weakly interacting sectors with similar electroweak associated production and cascade decays, where a heavier state separated from the DM candidate by less than $m_Z$ produces a soft muon pair via an off-shell $Z$ boson.