Weakly-interacting Particles Research Articles

The FASER detector

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is an experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Such particles may be produced in the very forward direction of the LHC's high-energy collisions and then decay to visible particles inside the FASER detector, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point, aligned with the beam collisions axis. FASER also includes a sub-detector, FASERν, designed to detect neutrinos produced in the LHC collisions and to study their properties. In this paper, each component of the FASER detector is described in detail, as well as the installation of the experiment system and its commissioning using cosmic-rays collected in September 2021 and during the LHC pilot beam test carried out in October 2021. FASER has successfully started taking LHC collision data in 2022, and will run throughout LHC Run 3.

Search for dark photons with the FASER detector at the LHC

The FASER experiment at the LHC is designed to search for light, weakly-interacting particles produced in proton-proton collisions at the ATLAS interaction point that travel in the far-forward direction. The first results from a search for dark photons decaying to an electron-positron pair, using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.0 fb−1 collected at centre-of-mass energy s=13.6 TeV in 2022 in LHC Run 3, are presented. No events are seen in an almost background-free analysis, yielding world-leading constraints on dark photons with couplings ϵ∼2×10−5−1×10−4 and masses ∼17 MeV−70 MeV. The analysis is also used to probe the parameter space of a massive gauge boson from a U(1)B−L model, with couplings gB−L∼5×10−6−2×10−5 and masses ∼15 MeV−40 MeV excluded for the first time.

Unveiling the outer core composition with neutrino oscillation tomography

In the last 70 years, geophysics has established that the Earth’s outer core is an FeNi alloy containing a few percent of light elements, whose nature and amount remain controversial. Besides the classical combinations of silicon and oxygen, hydrogen has been advocated as the only light element that could account alone for both the core density and velocity profiles. Here we show how this question can be addressed from an independent viewpoint, by exploiting the tomographic information provided by atmospheric neutrinos, weakly-interacting particles produced in the atmosphere and constantly traversing the Earth. We evaluate the potential of the upcoming generation of atmospheric neutrino detectors for such a measurement, showing that they could efficiently detect the presence of 1 wt% hydrogen in the Earth’s core in 50 years of concomitant data taking. We then identify the main requirements for a next-generation detector to perform this measurement in a few years timescale, with the further capability to efficiently discriminate between FeNiH and FeNiSixOy core composition models in less than 15 years.

The new monolithic ASIC of the preshower detector for di-photon measurements in the FASER experiment at CERN

The ForwArd Search ExpeRiment (FASER) is an experiment searching for new light and weakly-interacting particles at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. FASER is composed of different sub-detectors, including silicon microstrip detectors, scintillator counters and an electromagnetic calorimeter. In this paper, a new preshower detector for the FASER experiment is presented. The new detector, based on monolithic pixel ASICs, will provide excellent spatial and time resolutions and a large charge dynamic range. First results from a prototype chip produced by IHP in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology are shown.

Design, Manufacture and Measurement of Three Permanent Magnet Dipoles for FASER Experiment

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is designed to search for new, yet undiscovered, light and weakly-interacting particles and study the interactions of high-energy neutrinos. Three dipoles, one 1.5 m-long and the other two 1.0 m-long each, installed upstream of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, are required to achieve sufficient separation of pairs of oppositely charged, high-energy Standard Model particles originating from decays of new physics particles. The dipoles have an aperture of 200 mm in diameter and a required magnetic field at the centre ≥ 0.55 T. Due to tight space constraints, a design based on permanent magnet technology was proposed. This paper describes the design, manufacturing, assembly and magnetic measurement of these large Halbach array dipoles.

The recent status of the FASER detector

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is an experiment dedicated to searching for light, extremely weakly-interacting particles at the LHC. Such particles may be produced in the high-energy collisions at the LHC and then decay to visible particles in FASER, which is placed 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point. FASER, also includes a sub-detector, FASERν, designed to detect neutrino’s produced in the LHC collisions and to study their properties. In this paper, we introduce each component of the FASER detector that has been installed into the LHC during Long Shutdown 2 and the current status of the commissioning.

Gamma factory searches for extremely weakly interacting particles

The Gamma Factory is a proposal to back-scatter laser photons off a beam of partially-stripped ions at the LHC, producing a beam of $\sim 10$ MeV to $1$ GeV photons with intensities of $10^{16}$ to $10^{18}~\text{s}^{-1}$. This implies $\sim 10^{23}$ to $10^{25}$ photons on target per year, many orders of magnitude greater than existing accelerator light sources and also far greater than all current and planned electron and proton fixed target experiments. We determine the Gamma Factory's discovery potential through "dark Compton scattering," $\gamma e \to e X$, where $X$ is a new, weakly-interacting particle. For dark photons and other new gauge bosons with masses in the 1~to~100 MeV range, the Gamma Factory has the potential to discover extremely weakly-interacting particles with just a few hours of data and will probe couplings as low as $\sim 10^{-9}$ with a year of running. The Gamma Factory therefore may probe couplings lower than all other terrestrial experiments and is highly complementary to astrophysical probes. We outline the requirements of an experiment to realize this potential and determine the sensitivity reach for various experimental configurations.

Discovering dark matter at the LHC through its nuclear scattering in far-forward emulsion and liquid argon detectors

The LHC may produce light, weakly-interacting particles that decay to dark matter, creating an intense and highly collimated beam of dark matter particles in the far-forward direction. We investigate the prospects for detecting this dark matter in two far-forward detectors proposed for a future Forward Physics Facility: FASER$\nu$2, a 10-tonne emulsion detector, and FLArE, a 10- to 100-tonne LArTPC. We focus here on nuclear scattering, including elastic scattering, resonant pion production, and deep inelastic scattering, and devise cuts that efficiently remove the neutrino-induced background. In the invisibly-decaying dark photon scenario, DM-nuclear scattering probes new parameter space for dark matter masses 5 MeV $\lesssim m_{\chi} \lesssim$ 500 MeV. When combined with the DM-electron scattering studied previously, FASER$\nu$2 and FLArE will be able to discover dark matter in a large swath of the cosmologically-favored parameter space with MeV $\lesssim m_{\chi} \lesssim $ GeV.

ANTARES and KM3NeT: The Latest Results of the Neutrino Telescopes in the Mediterranean

The measurement of cosmic neutrinos is a new and unique method to observe the Universe. Neutrinos are chargeless, weakly-interacting particles that can provide information about the interior of an astrophysical object for cosmological distances. Indeed, they are a complementary probe with respect to other messengers such as multi-wavelength light and charged cosmic rays, allowing the observation of the far Universe and providing information on the production mechanism. Here, the neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea that are operating or in progress will be reviewed. The ANTARES (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch) detector is the largest neutrino telescope currently in operation in the Mediterranean Sea and the first operating in sea water. Some of the ANTARES results will be summarized, including diffuse, point-like, and multi-messenger source searches. Finally, the future km 3 -scale telescope KM3NeT (Cubic Kilometre Neutrino Telescope) will be described focusing on the expected performances and sensitivities.

Axionlike particles at FASER: The LHC as a photon beam dump

The goal of FASER, ForwArd Search ExpeRiment at the LHC, is to discover light, weakly-interacting particles with a small and inexpensive detector placed in the far-forward region of ATLAS or CMS. A promising location in an unused service tunnel 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point (IP) has been identified. Previous studies have found that FASER has significant discovery potential for new particles produced at the IP, including dark photons, dark Higgs bosons, and heavy neutral leptons. In this study, we explore a qualitatively different, `beam dump' capability of FASER, in which the new particles are produced not at the IP, but through collisions in detector elements further downstream. In particular, we consider the discovery prospects for axion-like particles (ALPs) that couple to the standard model through the $a \gamma \gamma$ interaction. TeV-scale photons produced at the IP collide with the TAN neutral particle absorber 130 m downstream, producing ALPs through the Primakoff process, and the ALPs then decay to two photons in FASER. We show that FASER can discover ALPs with masses $m_a \sim 30 - 400~\text{MeV}$ and couplings $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \sim 10^{-6} - 10^{-3}~\text{GeV}^{-1}$, and we discuss the ALP signal characteristics and detector requirements.

Quantum-gravity effects could in principle be witnessed in neutrino-like oscillations

Two of us (Marletto and Vedral 2017 Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 240402) recently showed how the quantum character of a physical system, in particular the gravitational field, can in principle be witnessed without directly measuring observables of that system, solely by its ability to mediate entanglement between two other systems. Here we propose a variant of that scheme, where the entanglement is again generated via gravitational interaction, but now between two particles both at sharp locations (very close to each other) but each in a superposition of two different masses. We discuss an in principle example using two hypothetical massive, neutral, weakly-interacting particles generated in a superposition of different masses. The key property of such particles would be that, like neutrinos, they are affected only by weak nuclear interactions and gravity.

Shape mixing in 0νββ candidates

Weak processes are typically observed through nuclear effects, as they mediate between different eigenstates of either one nucleus, or a pair of nuclei. Since the derivation of important parameters of the weak interaction and weakly-interacting particles, such as their masses, spin dependencies, and alike, heavily relies on nuclear theory, it must be assured that theory properly describes the relevant wave functions. A special challenge for neutrino- less double-beta decay, for example, is the location of many candidate isotopes in regions of the nuclear chart, where nuclei may exist simultaneously in different shapes, hence, different wave function components belonging to different nuclear deformations mixing into the nuclear eigenstates. In addition, isovector parameters of nuclear models are not often well constrained, posing an additional challenge. Through the measurement of properties of the nuclear scissors mode, a magnetic isovector excitation at low energies, using photon-scattering techniques, we obtain data that is relevant to constrain the structure of the nuclei and their eigenstates in question. Furthermore, our recent research program comprises the investigation of isotopes relevant for the detection of hypothetical massive weakly-interacting particles.

A novel use of light guides and wavelength shifting plates for the detection of scintillation photons in large liquid argon detectors

Scintillation light generated as charged particles traverse large liquid argon detectors adds valuable information to studies of weakly-interacting particles. This paper uses both laboratory measurements and cosmic ray data from the Blanche dewar facility at Fermilab to characterize the efficiency of the photon detector technology developed at Indiana University for the single phase far detector of DUNE. The efficiency of this technology was found to be 0.48% at the readout end when the detector components were characterized with laboratory measurements. A second determination of the efficiency using cosmic ray tracks is in reasonable agreement with the laboratory determination. The agreement of these two efficiency determinations supports the result that minimum ionizing muons generate Nphot=40,000 photons/MeV as they cross the LAr volume.

Electroweak boson production in p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at [formula omitted] with ALICE

W and Z bosons are massive weakly-interacting particles, insensitive to the strong interaction. They provide therefore a medium-blind probe of the initial state of the heavy-ion collisions. The final results for the W and Z-boson production in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV are presented. The production cross-section is well described by perturbative calculations but the data cannot further constrain the nuclear modification of the parton distribution functions. The W-boson production is also studied as a function of the collision centrality, and found to be constant within uncertainties.The Z-boson production was also measured in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV with ALICE. This is the first measurement at forward rapidity at such energies. The preliminary results for the invariant yields divided by the nuclear overlap functions are described by perturbative calculations including nuclear modifications of the PDFs.

Decoherence in Excited Atoms by Low-Energy Scattering

We describe a new mechanism of decoherence in excited atoms as a result of thermal particles scattering by the atomic nucleus. It is based on the idea that a single scattering will produce a sudden displacement of the nucleus, which will be perceived by the electron in the atom as an instant shift in the electrostatic potential. This will leave the atom’s wave-function partially projected into lower-energy states, which will lead to decoherence of the atomic state. The decoherence is calculated to increase with the excitation of the atom, making observation of the effect easier in Rydberg atoms. We estimate the order of the decoherence for photons and massive particles scattering, analyzing several commonly presented scenarios. Our scheme can be applied to the detection of weakly-interacting particles, like those which may be the constituents of Dark Matter, the interaction of which was calculated to have a more prominent effect that the background radiation.

Scintillation light from cosmic-ray muons in liquid argon

This paper reports the results of an experiment to directly measure the time-resolved scintillation signal from the passage of cosmic-ray muons through liquid argon. Scintillation light from these muons is of value to studies of weakly-interacting particles in neutrino experiments and dark matter searches. The experiment was carried out at the TallBo dewar facility at Fermilab using prototype light guide detectors and electronics developed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Two models are presented for the time structure of the scintillation light, a phenomenological model and a composite model. Both models find τT = 1.52 μs for the decay time constant of the Ar2* triplet state. These models also show that the identification of the ``early'' light fraction in the phenomenological model, FE ≈ 25% of the signal, with the total light from singlet decays is an underestimate. The total fraction of singlet light is FS ≈ 36%, where the increase over FE is from singlet light emitted by the wavelength shifter through processes with long decay constants. The models were further used to compute the experimental particle identification parameter Fprompt, the fraction of light coming in a short time window after the trigger compared with the light in the total recorded waveform. The models reproduce quite well the typical experimental value ∼0.3 found by dark matter and double β-decay experiments, which suggests this parameter provides a robust metric for discriminating electrons and muons from more heavily ionizing particles.

Gravitational Lensing: Einstein’s unfinished symphony

Gravitational lensing – the deflection of light rays by gravitating matter – has become a major tool in the armoury of the modern cosmologist. Proposed nearly a hundred years ago as a key feature of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, we trace the historical development since its verification at a solar eclipse in 1919. Einstein was apparently cautious about its practical utility and the subject lay dormant observationally for nearly 60 years. Nonetheless there has been rapid progress over the past twenty years. The technique allows astronomers to chart the distribution of dark matter on large and small scales thereby testing predictions of the standard cosmological model which assumes dark matter comprises a massive weakly-interacting particle. By measuring the distances and tracing the growth of dark matter structure over cosmic time, gravitational lensing also holds great promise in determining whether the dark energy, postulated to explain the accelerated cosmic expansion, is a vacuum energy density or a failure of general relativity on large scales. We illustrate the wide range of applications which harness the power of gravitational lensing, from searches for the earliest galaxies magnified by massive clusters to those for extrasolar planets which temporarily brighten a background star. We summarise the future prospects with dedicated ground and space-based facilities designed to exploit this remarkable physical phenomenon.

Efficiently extracting energy from cosmological neutrinos

Detecting the extremely low-energy neutrinos that form the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) presents many experimental challenges, but pursuing this elusive goal is still worthwhile because these weakly-interacting particles could provide a new window into the structure and composition of the early universe. This report examines whether cosmological neutrinos can deposit sufficient energy into a target system to be detectable with plausible extensions of current bolometric technologies. While the macroscopic wavelengths of cosmological neutrinos can greatly enhance their cross sections with dense targets, such interactions can only be detectable if they transfer a significant fraction of each neutrino's kinetic energy into the detector system. We find that a large array of dense target masses coupled to suitable motion-sensitive circuits could potentially satisfy both of these conditions and thus might be able to serve as the basis for a more practical cosmological neutrino detector.

Transference Principles for Log-Sobolev and Spectral-Gap with Applications to Conservative Spin Systems

We obtain new principles for transferring log-Sobolev and Spectral-Gap inequalities from a source metric-measure space to a target one, when the curvature of the target space is bounded from below. As our main application, we obtain explicit estimates for the log-Sobolev and Spectral-Gap constants of various conservative spin system models, consisting of non-interacting and weakly-interacting particles, constrained to conserve the mean-spin. When the self-interaction is a perturbation of a strongly convex potential, this partially recovers and partially extends previous results of Caputo, Chafa\"{\i}, Grunewald, Landim, Lu, Menz, Otto, Panizo, Villani, Westdickenberg and Yau. When the self-interaction is only assumed to be (non-strongly) convex, as in the case of the two-sided exponential measure, we obtain sharp estimates on the system's spectral-gap as a function of the mean-spin, independently of the size of the system.

PROPOSAL: A tool for propagation of charged leptons

The search for astrophysical high-energy neutrinos is one of the most important approaches to pin-point the sources of cosmic rays. The advantage of using these neutral and only weakly-interacting particles as messengers in order to look deep into the sources themselves is at the same time the main challenge, as extremely large detectors are needed to measure a significant signal. With the finalization of the large underground detectors IceCube and ANTARES, the quantity and the quality of the recorded data are now at a stage where many analyses have a sensitivity limited by the systematic error rather than statistical uncertainties. Such an error source is the Monte Carlo description of the lepton energy losses before a lepton reaches the detector and of all leptons within the detector. A very accurate simulation of the propagation of muons through large amount of matter is needed because a muon may sustain hundreds of interactions before it is detected by the experiment. Requirements on the precision of the muon propagation code are very stringent. A stochastical correct description of the series of lepton interactions within the detector is needed for a correct conclusion from the measured signature to the lepton energy respectively neutrino energy. In this paper, the Monte Carlo code PROPOSAL (Propagator with optimal precision and optimized speed for all leptons) is presented as a public tool for muon propagation through transparent media. Up-to-date cross sections for ionization, bremsstrahlung, photonuclear interactions, electron pair production, Landau–Pomeranchuk–Migdal and Ter-Mikaelian effects, muon and tau decay, as well as Molière scattering are implemented for different parametrizations. Thus, a full study of the systematic uncertainties is possible from the theoretical description of lepton energy loss in the context of high-energy neutrino analyses and other astroparticle physics experiments that rely on the proper description of lepton propagation. A numerical precision of better than 10−6 is achieved, setting the systematic error for high-energy neutrino analyses to a minimum from the numerical prospective.