Lepton-flavor-violating ALPs at the Electron-Ion Collider: a golden opportunity

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) arise in a variety of theoretical contexts and can, in general, mediate flavor violating interactions and parity non-conservation. We consider lepton flavor violating ALPs with GeV scale or larger masses which may, for example, arise in composite dark sector models. We show that a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) can uncover or constrain such ALPs via processes of the type e AZ→ τ AZa, where AZ is a nucleus of charge Z and a is an ALP in the range mτ≤ ma ≲ 20 GeV. The production of the ALP can have a large Z2 enhancement from low Q2 electromagnetic scattering of the electron from a heavy ion. Using the gold nucleus (Z = 79) as an example, we show that the EIC can explore e − τ flavor violation, mediated by GeV-scale ALPs, well beyond current limits. Importantly, the EIC reach for this interaction is not sensitive to the lepton-flavor conserving ALP couplings, whose possible smallness can render searches using τ decays ineffective. We also discuss how the EIC electron beam polarization can provide a powerful tool for investigating parity violating ALPs.