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Title: Testing light dark matter coannihilation with fixed-target experiments

Journal Article · · Physical Review D
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

In this paper, we introduce a novel program of fixed-target searches for thermal-origin Dark Matter (DM), which couples inelastically to the Standard Model. Since the DM only interacts by transitioning to a heavier state, freeze-out proceeds via coannihilation and the unstable heavier state is depleted at later times. For sufficiently large mass splittings, direct detection is kinematically forbidden and indirect detection is impossible, so this scenario can only be tested with accelerators. Here we propose new searches at proton and electron beam fixed-target experiments to probe sub-GeV coannihilation, exploiting the distinctive signals of up- and down-scattering as well as decay of the excited state inside the detector volume. We focus on a representative model in which DM is a pseudo-Dirac fermion coupled to a hidden gauge field (dark photon), which kinetically mixes with the visible photon. We define theoretical targets in this framework and determine the existing bounds by reanalyzing results from previous experiments. We find that LSND, E137, and BaBar data already place strong constraints on the parameter space consistent with a thermal freeze-out origin, and that future searches at Belle II and MiniBooNE, as well as recently-proposed fixed-target experiments such as LDMX and BDX, can cover nearly all remaining gaps. We also briefly comment on the discovery potential for proposed beam dump and neutrino experiments which operate at much higher beam energies.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1426438
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1354872; OSTI ID: 1380015
Report Number(s):
BNL-114492-2017-JAAM; FERMILAB-PUB-17-068-PPD; PUPT-2520; arXiv:1703.06881; PRVDAQ; TRN: US1802280
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Vol. 96, Issue 5; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 68 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Probing invisible decay of a dark photon at BESIII and a future Super Tau Charm Factory via monophoton searches journal December 2019
Search for vector mediator of dark matter production in invisible decay mode text January 2018
Dark Matter Search in Missing Energy Events with NA64 text January 2019
Impact of Resonance on Thermal Targets for Invisible Dark Photon Searches text January 2017
Light Dark Matter: Models and Constraints text January 2017
Search for vector mediator of Dark Matter production in invisible decay mode text January 2017
Dark Sectors at the Fermilab SeaQuest Experiment text January 2018
Severe Constraints on New Physics Explanations of the MiniBooNE Excess text January 2018
Explaining the ANITA Anomaly with Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter text January 2019
Dark matter search in missing energy events with NA64 text January 2019

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