Probing dark sectors at the LHC using long-lived particles

After discovering the Higgs, the main motivation of the LHC experiments is to look for new physics to explain any of the outstanding questions un-answered by the Standard Model. One such question is the nature of dark matter.  Many models of dark matter predict either very feeble couplings to standard model or heavy mediators.  Both these translate into new particles that have a lifetime large enough to decay at detector scales, i.e. so called long-lived particles (LLPs).  Similarly, a confined dark sector with a heavy portal would also predict dark mesons with a similarly large decay lifetime.  The LHC experiments are currently engaged in designing new comprehensive searches (and even new detectors) for various LLPs. In this talk, I will outline present LLP searches, highlight gaps in probing some theoretically well-motivated models and suggest how they can be remedied by future searches.