Dark Photon Mass Research Articles

Search for Leptonic Decays of Dark Photons at NA62.

The NA62 experiment at CERN, configured in beam-dump mode, has searched for dark photon decays in flight to electron-positron pairs using a sample of 1.4×10^{17} protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. The combined result for dark photon searches in lepton-antilepton final states is presented and a region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% confidence level, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon mass values between 50 and 600 MeV/c^{2} and coupling values in the range 10^{-6} to 4×10^{-5}. An interpretation of the e^{+}e^{-} search result in terms of the emission and decay of an axionlike particle is also presented.

Deepest sensitivity to wavelike dark photon dark matter with superconducting radio frequency cavities

Wavelike, bosonic dark matter candidates like axions and dark photons can be detected using microwave cavities known as haloscopes. Traditionally, haloscopes consist of tunable copper cavities operating in the TM010 mode, but ohmic losses have limited their performance. In contrast, superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities can achieve quality factors of ∼1010, perhaps 5 orders of magnitude better than copper cavities, leading to more sensitive dark matter detectors. In this paper, we first derive that the scan rate of a haloscope experiment is proportional to the loaded quality factor QL, even if the cavity bandwidth is much narrower than the dark matter halo line shape. We then present a proof-of-concept search for dark photon dark matter using a nontunable ultrahigh-quality SRF cavity. We exclude dark photon dark matter with kinetic mixing strengths of χ>1.5×10−16 for a dark photon mass of mA′=5.35 μeV, achieving the deepest exclusion to wavelike dark photons by almost an order of magnitude. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Search for light long-lived neutral particles from Higgs boson decays via vector-boson-fusion production from pp collisions at s=13\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s}=13$$\\end{document} TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is reported for long-lived dark photons with masses between 0.1 GeV and 15 GeV, from exotic decays of Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson-fusion. Events that contain displaced collimated Standard Model fermions reconstructed in the calorimeter or muon spectrometer are probed. This search uses the full LHC Run 2 (2015–2018) data sample collected in proton–proton collisions at s=13\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s}=13$$\\end{document} TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$fb^{-1}$$\\end{document}. Dominant backgrounds from Standard Model processes and non-collision sources are estimated using data-driven techniques. The observed event yields in the signal regions are consistent with the expected background. Upper limits on the Higgs boson to dark photon branching fraction are reported as a function of the dark photon mean proper decay length or of the dark photon mass and the coupling between the Standard Model and the potential dark sector. This search is combined with previous ATLAS searches obtained in the gluon–gluon fusion and WH production modes. A branching fraction above 10% is excluded at 95% CL for a 125 GeV Higgs boson decaying into two dark photons for dark photon mean proper decay lengths between 173 and 1296 mm and mass of 10 GeV.

First Scan Search for Dark Photon Dark Matter with a Tunable Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavity.

Dark photons have emerged as promising candidates for dark matter, and their search is a top priority in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. We report the first use of a tunable niobium superconducting radio-frequency cavity for a scan search of dark photon dark matter with innovative data analysis techniques. We mechanically adjusted the resonant frequency of a cavity submerged in liquid helium at a temperature of 2K, and scanned the dark photon mass over a frequency range of 1.37MHz centered at 1.3GHz. Our study leveraged the superconducting radio-frequency cavity's remarkably high quality factors of approximately 10^{10}, resulting in the most stringent constraints to date on a substantial portion of the exclusion parameter space on the kinetic mixing coefficient ε between dark photons and electromagnetic photons, yielding a value of ε<2.2×10^{-16}.

First Search for Dark-Trident Processes Using the MicroBooNE Detector

We present a first search for dark-trident scattering in a neutrino beam using a dataset corresponding to 7.2×1020 protons on target taken with the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab. Proton interactions in the neutrino target at the main injector produce π0 and η mesons, which could decay into dark-matter (DM) particles mediated via a dark photon A′. A convolutional neural network is trained to identify interactions of the DM particles in the liquid-argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) exploiting its imagelike reconstruction capability. In the absence of a DM signal, we provide limits at the 90% confidence level on the squared kinematic mixing parameter ϵ2 as a function of the dark-photon mass in the range 10≤MA′≤400 MeV. The limits cover previously unconstrained parameter space for the production of fermion or scalar DM particles χ for two benchmark models with mass ratios Mχ/MA′=0.6 and 2 and for dark fine-structure constants 0.1≤αD≤1. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Constraints on photon mass and dark photon from the Jovian magnetic field

The Jovian magnetic field, being the strongest and largest planetary one in the solar system, could offer us new insights into possible microscopic scale new physics, such as a non-zero mass of the Standard Model (SM) photon or a light dark photon kinetically mixing with the SM photon. We employ the immense data set from the latest Juno mission, which provides us unprecedented information about the magnetic field of the gas giant, together with a more rigorous statistical approach compared to the literature, to set strong constraints on the dark photon mass and kinetic mixing parameter, as well as the SM photon mass. The constraint on the dark photon parameters is independent of whether dark photon is (part of) dark matter or not, and serves as the most stringent one in a certain regime of the parameter space.

Probing dark photons from a light scalar at Belle II

In the minimal U(1) extension of the Standard Model (SM), a new gauge boson referred to as “dark photon” is predicted. The dark-photon mass can be generated from an additional Higgs mechanism associated with a dark scalar boson. At B-factories such as Belle II, large numbers of B-mesons are produced and can decay to a kaon plus the dark scalar via the latter’s mixing with the SM Higgs boson. We evaluate the sensitivity of Belle II for the case in which the dark scalar decays exclusively into a pair of dark photons via the new U(1) gauge coupling, and the dark photons are long lived owing to a small kinetic mixing ϵ. We study the experimental signature in which each dark photon decays into a pair of charged leptons, pions, or kaons, resulting in a pair of displaced vertices, and argue that the search is essentially background-free. We perform detailed Monte-Carlo simulations to determine the expected number of signal events at Belle II with an integrated luminosity of 50 ab−1, taking into account the efficiencies for both final-state-particle identification and displaced tracking. We find that for experimentally allowed values of the scalar mixing angle and kinematically allowed dark-photon and dark-scalar masses, the proposed search is uniquely sensitive to the medium-ϵ regime, which is currently mostly unexcluded by experiments.

Effect of Ultralight Dark Matter on g-2 of the Electron.

If dark matter is ultralight, the number density of dark matter is very high, and the techniques of zero-temperature field theory are no longer valid. The dark matter number density modifies the vacuum, giving it a non-negligible particle occupation number. For fermionic dark matter, this occupation number can be no larger than one. However, in the case of bosons, the occupation number is unbounded. If there is a large occupation number, the Bose enhancement needs to be taken into consideration for any process involving particles which interact with the dark matter. Because the occupation number scales inversely with the dark matter mass, this effect is most prominent for ultralight dark matter. In fact, the Bose enhancement effect from the background is so significant for ultralight dark matter that, if dark matter is a dark photon, the correction to the anomalous magnetic moment is larger than experimental uncertainties for a mixing parameter of the order of 10^{-16} and a dark photon mass of the order of 10^{-20} eV. Furthermore, the constraint on the mixing parameter scales linearly with the dark photon mass, and so new significant constraints can be placed on the dark matter mass all the way up to 10^{-14} eV. Future experiments measuring g-2 will probe even smaller gauge mixing parameters.

Patchy screening of the CMB from dark photons

We study anisotropic (patchy) screening induced by the resonant conversion of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons into dark-sector massive vector bosons (dark photons) as they cross non-linear large scale structure (LSS). Resonant conversion takes place through the kinetic mixing of the photon with the dark photon, one of the simplest low energy extensions to the Standard Model. In the early Universe, resonant conversion can occur when the photon plasma mass, obtained as the photon propagates through the ionized interstellar and intergalactic media, matches the dark photon mass. After the epoch of reionization, resonant conversion occurs mainly in the ionized gas that occupies virialized dark matter halos, for a range of dark photon masses between 10-13 eV ≲ m A' ≲ 10-11 eV. This leads to new CMB anisotropies that are correlated with LSS, which we refer to as patchy dark screening, in analogy with anisotropies from Thomson screening. Its unique frequency dependence allows it to be distinguished from the blackbody CMB. In this paper, we use a halo model approach to predict the imprint of dark screening on the CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, as well as their correlation with LSS. We then examine the two- and three-point correlation functions of the dark-screened CMB, as well as correlation functions between CMB and LSS observables, to project the sensitivity of future measurements to the kinetic mixing parameter and dark photon mass. We demonstrate that an analysis with existing CMB data can improve upon current constraints on the kinetic mixing parameter by two orders of magnitude with the two-point correlation functions, while data from upcoming CMB experiments and LSS surveys can further improve the reach by another order of magnitude with two- and three-point correlation functions.

Search for Dark Photons in Rare Z Boson Decays with the ATLAS Detector.

A search for events with a dark photon produced in association with a dark Higgs boson via rare decays of the standard model Z boson is presented, using 139 fb^{-1} of sqrt[s]=13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The dark boson decays into a pair of dark photons, and at least two of the three dark photons must each decay into a pair of electrons or muons, resulting in at least two same-flavor opposite-charge lepton pairs in the final state. The data are found to be consistent with the background prediction, and upper limits are set on the dark photon's coupling to the dark Higgs boson times the kinetic mixing between the standard model photon and the dark photon, α_{D}ϵ^{2}, in the dark photon mass range of [5, 40]GeV except for the ϒ mass window [8.8, 11.1]GeV. This search explores new parameter space not previously excluded by other experiments.

Search for Dark Photon in e+e− → A′A′ Using Future Collider Experiments

The Standard Model (SM) does not provide an information for 26% of dark matter of the universe. In the dark sector, dark matter is supposed to be linked with the hypothetical particles called dark photons that have similar role to photons in electromagnetic interaction in the SM. Besides astronomical observation, there are studies to find dark matter candidates using accelerators. In this paper, we searched for dark photons using future electron-positron colliders, including Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC)/CEPC, Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee)/Innovative Detector for Electron-positron Accelerator (IDEA), and International Linear Collider (ILC)/International Large Detector (ILD). Using the parameterized response of the detector simulation of Delphes, we studied the sensitivity of a double dark photon mode at each accelerator/detector. The signal mode is double dark photon decay channel, e+e− → A’A’, where A’ (dark photon with spin 1) decaying into a muon pair. We used MadGraph5 to generate Monte Carlo (MC) events by means of a Simplified Model. We found the dark photon mass at which the cross-sections were the highest for each accelerator to obtain the maximum number of events. In this paper we show the expected number of dark photon signal events and the detector efficiency of each accelerator. The results of this study can facilitate in the dark photon search by future electron-positron accelerators.

Stefan–Boltzmann law and Casimir effect for dark photons

In this paper, the existence of a massive dark photon, associated with a new gauge group is considered. The dark photon can be kinetically mixed with the photon. To study some applications, the thermo field dynamics formalism is used. Exploring the topological structure of this approach, the influence of dark photons on the Stefan–Boltzmann law and the Casimir effect at zero and finite temperature is calculated.

Search for Boosted Dark Matter in COSINE-100.

We search for energetic electron recoil signals induced by boosted dark matter (BDM) from the galactic center using the COSINE-100 array of NaI(Tl) crystal detectors at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory. The signal would be an excess of events with energies above 4MeV over the well-understood background. Because no excess of events are observed in a 97.7 kg·yr exposure, we set limits on BDM interactions under a variety of hypotheses. Notably, we explored the dark photon parameter space, leading to competitive limits compared to direct dark photon search experiments, particularly for dark photon masses below 4MeV and considering the invisible decay mode. Furthermore, by comparing our results with a previous BDM search conducted by the Super-Kamionkande experiment, we found that the COSINE-100 detector has advantages in searching for low-mass dark matter. This analysis demonstrates the potential of the COSINE-100 detector to search for MeV electron recoil signals produced by the dark sector particle interactions.

New constraint on dark photon at T2K off-axis near detector

The T2K experiment is one of the most powerful long-baseline experiments to investigate neutrino oscillations. The off-axis near detector called ND280 is installed 280 m downstream from the neutrino production target to measure the neutrino energy spectrum. In this paper, we study the capability of the ND280 detector to search for the dark photon produced through the meson rare decay and proton bremsstrahlung processes at the proton beam dump. We find that the ten-year operation of T2K with the ND280 detector excludes the unexplored parameter region for the dark photon mass and kinetic mixing. We also show that a broader parameter region can be searched by the ND280 in the future T2K operation for dark photon as well as U(1)B−L gauge boson.

Nanohertz gravitational waves from cosmic strings and dark photon dark matter

The recent observations by pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments suggest the existence of stochastic gravitational wave background in the nano-Hz range. It can be a hint for the new physics and cosmic string is one of the promising candidates. In this paper, we study the implication of the PTA result for cosmic strings and dark photon dark matter produced by the decay of cosmic string loops. It can simultaneously explain the PTA result and present dark matter abundance for the dark photon mass m∼10−7–10−5eV. Implications for the gravitational wave detection with multi-frequency bands are also discussed.

Global QCD analysis and dark photons

We perform a global QCD analysis of high energy scattering data within the JAM Monte Carlo framework, including a coupling to a dark photon that augments the Standard Model (SM) electroweak coupling via kinetic mixing with the hypercharge B boson. We first set limits on the dark photon mass and mixing parameter assuming that the SM is the true theory of Nature, taking into account also the effect on g – 2 of the muon. If instead we entertain the possibility that the dark photon may play a role in deep-inelastic scattering (DIS), we find that the best fit is preferred over the SM at 6.5σ, even after accounting for missing higher order uncertainties. The improvement in χ2 with the dark photon is stable against all the tests we have applied, with the improvements in the theoretical predictions spread across a wide range of x and Q2. The largest improvement corresponds to the fixed target and HERA DIS data, while the best fit yields a value of g – 2 which significantly reduces the disagreement with the latest experimental determination.

Search for dark photon decays to μ+μ− at NA62

The NA62 experiment at CERN, designed to study the ultra-rare decay K+ → π+νν¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ u \\overline{\ u} $$\\end{document}, has also collected data in beam-dump mode. In this configuration, dark photons may be produced by protons dumped on an absorber and reach a decay volume beginning 80 m downstream. A search for dark photons decaying in flight to μ+μ− pairs is reported, based on a sample of 1.4 × 1017 protons on dump collected in 2021. No evidence for a dark photon signal is observed. A region of the parameter space is excluded at 90% CL, improving on previous experimental limits for dark photon masses between 215 and 550 MeV/c2.

Reflections on bubble walls

We discuss the dynamics of expanding bubble walls in the presence of massive dark photons whose mass changes as they cross the wall. For sufficiently thin walls, we show that there exists a transient kinematic regime characterized by a constant reflection probability of longitudinal — but not transverse — modes. This effect can have important implications for the dynamics of expanding vacuum bubbles in the early Universe. Most notably, it leads to a new source of pressure on the expanding interface, featuring a non-monotonic dependence on the γ-factor of the bubble walls and reaching a peak at intermediate γ-factors that we dub Maximum Dynamic Pressure. When this pressure is large enough to halt the acceleration of the bubble walls, the difference in vacuum energy densities goes into making a fraction of the dark photons relativistic, turning them into dark radiation. If the dark radiation remains relativistic until late times, an observable contribution to ∆Neff is possible for phase transitions with strength α ∼ 10−2− 10−1.

Signals of millicharged dark matter in light-shining-through-wall experiments

We discuss a novel detection technique for millicharged dark matter that makes use of existing light-shining-through-wall (LSW) experiments searching for massive dark photons. Since millicharged particles interact with both the visible and dark sectors, a small background of such particles enables the search for visible signals even in the limit of a massless dark photon. Furthermore, for sufficiently large couplings, a small dark matter subcomponent consisting of millicharged particles can have a terrestrial abundance that is significantly enhanced with respect to its galactic abundance. We leverage this fact to show that in certain parts of parameter space, future runs of the LSW Dark SRF experiment can be used to set the strongest limits on millicharged relics.

Peaky production of light dark photon dark matter

We explore a mechanism to produce a light dark photon dark matter through a coupling between the dark photon field and a spectator scalar field which plays no role in the inflationary expansion of the Universe while rolling down its potential during the inflation. The motion of the spectator field efficiently produces dark photons with large wavelengths which become non-relativistic before the time of matter-radiation equality. The spectrum of the wavelengths is peaky so that the constraint from the isocurvature perturbation can be evaded. The correct relic abundance is then achieved over a wide range of the dark photon mass down to 10-13 eV. Our mechanism favors high-scale inflation models which can be tested in future observations. Furthermore, fluctuations of the dark photon field during inflation produce gravitational waves detectable at future space-based interferometers and/or pulsar timing array experiments.