Detecting the coupling of axion-like particles with fermions at the ILC

Abstract

New pseudoscalars, axion-like particles (ALPs), provide the exciting target for present and future collider-based experiments. Search for ALPs is performed in this paper via the W+W− fusion process e−e+→νeνe‾a→νeνe‾ff‾ at the 1 TeV ILC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1 ab−1 and the beam polarization P(e−, e+)=(−80%, +20%). Owing to the good capability of the ILC in performing b-tagging and the sufficiently large branching ratio of the ALP decaying into a pair of b quarks, the decay channel a→bb‾ is mainly concerned. The prospective sensitivities provided by the ILC on the ALP-fermion coupling as low as 1 TeV−1 and 1.75 TeV−1 are derived at 95% confidence level in the ALP mass intervals 37−50 GeV and 52−300 GeV, respectively. Our results will help to probe significant parameter space in an unexplored region beyond the existing constraints.