  Effective field theories provide a simple framework for probing possible dark
matter (DM) models by reparametrising full interactions into a reduced number
of operators with smaller dimensionality in parameter space. In many cases
these models have four particle vertices, e.g. qqXX, leading to the pair
production of dark matter particles, X, at a hadron collider from initial state
quarks, q. In this analysis we show that for many fundamental DM models with
s-channel DM couplings to qq-pairs, these effective vertices must also produce
quark contact interactions (CI) of the form qqqq. The respective effective
couplings are related by the common underlying theory which allows one to
translate the upper limits from one coupling to the other. We show that at the
LHC, the experimental limits on quark contact interactions give stronger
translated limits on the DM coupling than the experimental searches for dark
matter pair production.
