Abstract
We study the sensitivity of the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) experiments, MicroBooNE, ICARUS, and SBND, to MeV- to GeV-scale inelastic dark matter interacting through a dark photon mediator. These models provide interesting scenarios of light thermal dark matter, which, while challenging to probe with direct and indirect detection experiments, are amenable to accelerator-based searches. We consider production of the dark sector states with both the Fermilab Booster 8 GeV and NuMI 120 GeV proton beams and study the signatures of scattering and decay of the heavy excited dark state in the SBN detectors. These distinct signatures probe complementary regions of parameter space. All three experiments will be able to cover new ground, with an excellent near-term opportunity to search for cosmologically motivated targets explaining the observed dark matter abundance.
Highlights
A host of disparate gravitational phenomena provides seemingly incontrovertible evidence for dark matter (DM), yet it is striking how little we know about its fundamental properties
We study the sensitivity of the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) experiments, MicroBooNE, ICARUS, and ShortBaseline Near Detector (SBND), to MeV- to GeV-scale inelastic dark matter interacting through a dark photon mediator
While the sensitivity of accelerator-based neutrino experiments to inelastic dark matter (iDM) has been studied in other contexts [18,21], here we consider the specific experimental issues related to their production in the Booster and Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beam lines and their detection in the SBN liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) detectors
Summary
A host of disparate gravitational phenomena provides seemingly incontrovertible evidence for dark matter (DM), yet it is striking how little we know about its fundamental properties. While the sensitivity of accelerator-based neutrino experiments to iDM has been studied in other contexts [18,21], here we consider the specific experimental issues related to their production in the Booster and NuMI beam lines and their detection in the SBN LArTPC detectors. This is to our knowledge the first time that the sensitivities of the three upcoming SBN experiments to iDM scenarios have been estimated.
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