A search for dark matter (DM) particles produced in association with bottom quarks is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed in the final state with large missing transverse momentum and a pair of jets originating from bottom quarks. No significant excess of data is observed with respect to the standard model expectation. Results are interpreted in the context of a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional light pseudoscalar (2HDM+a). An upper limit is set on the mass of the lighter pseudoscalar, excluding masses up to 260 GeV at 95% confidence level. Sensitivity to the parameter space with the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets, $\tan\beta$, greater than 15 is achieved, capitalizing on the enhancement of couplings between pseudoscalars and bottom quarks with high $\tan\beta$.
Benecke, A., Bethani, A., Bruno, G., Caputo, C., de Favereau de Jeneret, J., Delaere, C., Donertas, I. S., Giammanco, A., Guzel, A. O., Jain, S., Lemaitre, V., Lidrych, J., Mastrapasqua, P., Tran, T. T., Wertz, S., CMS, & et al. (2025). Search for dark matter produced in association with a pair of bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. Journal of High Energy Physics, 02. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2025)050 (Original work published 2025)