Novel probes for dark matter at the LHC

Historically searches for dark matter (DM) in colliders have focussed on weakly interacting scenarios, where the experimental signature is so-called mono-X, X being a standard model (SM) particle or a jet. However, recent phenomenological work has also suggested novel signatures emanating from strongly interacting scenarios, one of them is termed semi-visible jets (SVJ). In this case, jets are produced interspersed with DM particles, resulting in a signature of missing transverse momentum aligned with one of the jets, which is an experimentally challenging search. CMS (in s-channel) and ATLAS (in t-channel) have recently come up with the first results, but this is only a beginning. In this talk, I will discuss the ATLAS result, and also cover multiple pioneering studies our group has performed on SVJ, covering three published or soon to be published papers, spanning the usage of jet substructure observables, including novel energy correlation function (EFP) inspired observables, to discriminate SVJs, as well as a promising feasibility study of preferential production of SVJ with heavy flavour. Finally, although not related to SVJ, I will cover our published work about an innovative search for dark photons in events with a top quark and a lepton jet.