# Hadronic Mono-Z Dark Matter Sensitivity with Flow Matching on CMS Open Data

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02923 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.02923/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 29 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Flow Matching for Generative Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02747/) (2022)
- [Neural Ordinary Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.07366/) (2018)
- [Glow: Generative Flow with Invertible 1x1 Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03039/) (2018)
- [Normalizing Flows for Probabilistic Modeling and Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.02762/) (2019)
- [Neural Spline Flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.04032/) (2019)
- [FFJORD: Free-form Continuous Dynamics for Scalable Reversible Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.01367/) (2018)
- [Anomaly Detection with Density Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.04990/) (2020)
- [Classification without labels: Learning from mixed samples in high energy physics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.02949/) (2017)
- [Mono-Z Dark Matter Search with Neural Spline Flows Using CMS Run 2015D Open Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.13771/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Likelihood-Based Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in CMS Dijet Events](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.06686/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a projected sensitivity study for hadronic mono-Z dark-matter production using CMS Run~2015D HTMHT open data corresponding to 2.256382381~invfb, from which 1,439,523 events satisfy the hadronic mono-Z selection. Backgrounds are modelled with a conditional flow-matching continuous normalizing flow trained on the selected HTMHT events and evaluated on a held-out validation split reweighted to the full selected population. To mitigate artifacts from missing-object features and avoid in-sample scoring bias we apply sentinel imputation for undefined angular features, persist the train/validation split indices, and enforce a minimum reported background yield of 20 events when selecting the working point. A signal-side offline trigger proxy is applied to the simulated signal before scoring. Under this procedure the baseline analysis yields expected significances of 2.89σ, 7.62σ, and 7.41σ for three simplified-model benchmarks. An ablation study that removes the detailed extra-jet kinematics reduces the expected significance by 53--71%, indicating that extra-jet topology carries substantial discriminating power in the hadronic mono-Z channel. These results are projected sensitivities (no unblinding performed); the limitations and reproducibility of the study are discussed in Sections limitations and reproducibility.