Prospects of direct search for dark photon and dark Higgs in SeaQuest/E1067 experiment at the Fermilab main injector

Abstract

In this review, we present the current status and prospects of the dark sector physics search program of the SeaQuest/E1067 fixed target dimuon experiment at Fermilab Main Injector. There has been tremendous excitement and progress in searching for new physics in the dark sector in recent years. Dark sector refers to a collection of currently unknown particles that do not directly couple with the Standard Model (SM) strong and electroweak (EW) interactions but assumed to carry gravitational force, thus could be candidates of the missing Dark Matter (DM). Such particles may interact with the SM particles through “portal” interactions. Two of the simple possibilities are being investigated in our initial search: (1) dark photon and (2) dark Higgs. They could be within immediate reach of current or near future experimental search. We show there is a unique opportunity today at Fermilab to directly search for these particles in a highly motivated but uncharted parameter space in high-energy proton–nucleus collisions in the beam-dump mode using the 120 GeV proton beam from the Main Injector. Our current search window covers the mass range 0.2–10 GeV/c2, and in the near future, by adding an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) to the spectrometer, we can further explore the lower mass region down to about [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]1 MeV/c2 through the di-electron channel. If dark photons (and/or dark Higgs) were observed, they would revolutionize our understanding of the fundamental structures and interactions of our universe.