Abstract

An experiment is proposed to search for dark photons via electron-positron annihilation into photon plus dark photon. The dark photon would be reconstructed in a missing-mass technique, thus ensuring complete model independent. The Cornell University synchrotron can provide a positron beam suitable to probe the interesting mass range for dark photons. A detector based on CsI calorimetry is proposed, and the potential experimental reach in coupling constant and dark photon mass is shown.

Highlights

  • Introduction and Motivation dark matter is generally thought to be noninteracting, a feeble analog of the standard model electromagnetic interaction could be active in the dark sector, and could be produced in e+e− annihilations

  • The experiment employs a missing-mass strategy [2] to search for e+e− → γA, reconstructing the dark photon mass with a missing mass technique that depends only on the e+, e−, and γ kinematics

  • In the MMAPS experiment proposed here, we search for the process e+e− → γA in events produced by a positron beam incident on a fixed target

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Summary

Introduction and Motivation

Dark matter is generally thought to be noninteracting, a feeble analog of the standard model electromagnetic interaction could be active in the dark sector, and could be produced in e+e− annihilations. Many experiments are currently in progress or under construction to search for the “dark photon”. The experiment discussed here, based on the 5.3 GeV positron beam at Cornell University’s Wilson Laboratory (soon to be upgraded to 6.0 GeV), would extend the current limits in dark photon parameter space by almost two orders of magnitude. The experiment employs a missing-mass strategy [2] to search for e+e− → γA , reconstructing the dark photon mass with a missing mass technique that depends only on the e+, e−, and γ kinematics. A detector has been proposed, constructed primarily from components recovered from the retired CLEO and Babar experiments; similar detectors proposed at LNF (PADME) [3] and the Budker Institute (VEPP3) [4] could serve. The initially proposed experiment will be referred to here as the “Missing-Mass A-Prime Search”, or MMAPS

Experimental Strategy
Beam Extraction
The External Beam
Detector
Calorimeter
Calibration
Findings
Conclusions and Outlook

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