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Title: M3: a new muon missing momentum experiment to probe (g – 2)μ and dark matter at Fermilab

Abstract

Here, new light, weakly-coupled particles are commonly invoked to address the persistent $$\sim 4\sigma$$ anomaly in $$(g-2)_\mu$$ and serve as mediators between dark and visible matter. If such particles couple predominantly to heavier generations and decay invisibly, much of their best-motivated parameter space is inaccessible with existing experimental techniques. In this paper, we present a new fixed-target, missing-momentum search strategy to probe invisibly decaying particles that couple preferentially to muons. In our setup, a relativistic muon beam impinges on a thick active target. The signal consists of events in which a muon loses a large fraction of its incident momentum inside the target without initiating any detectable electromagnetic or hadronic activity in downstream veto systems. We propose a two-phase experiment, M$^3$ (Muon Missing Momentum), based at Fermilab. Phase 1 with $$\sim 10^{10}$$ muons on target can test the remaining parameter space for which light invisibly-decaying particles can resolve the $$(g-2)_\mu$$ anomaly, while Phase 2 with $$\sim 10^{13}$$ muons on target can test much of the predictive parameter space over which sub-GeV dark matter achieves freeze-out via muon-philic forces, including gauged $$U(1)_{L_\mu - L_\tau}$$.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
OSTI Identifier:
1439466
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1804.03144; FERMILAB-PUB-18-087-A
Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479; 1667037; TRN: US1900618
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-07CH11359
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2018; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer Berlin
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Fixed target experiments

Citation Formats

Kahn, Yonatan, Krnjaic, Gordan, Tran, Nhan, and Whitbeck, Andrew. M3: a new muon missing momentum experiment to probe (g – 2)μ and dark matter at Fermilab. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2018)153.
Kahn, Yonatan, Krnjaic, Gordan, Tran, Nhan, & Whitbeck, Andrew. M3: a new muon missing momentum experiment to probe (g – 2)μ and dark matter at Fermilab. United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2018)153
Kahn, Yonatan, Krnjaic, Gordan, Tran, Nhan, and Whitbeck, Andrew. 2018. "M3: a new muon missing momentum experiment to probe (g – 2)μ and dark matter at Fermilab". United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2018)153. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1439466.
@article{osti_1439466,
title = {M3: a new muon missing momentum experiment to probe (g – 2)μ and dark matter at Fermilab},
author = {Kahn, Yonatan and Krnjaic, Gordan and Tran, Nhan and Whitbeck, Andrew},
abstractNote = {Here, new light, weakly-coupled particles are commonly invoked to address the persistent $\sim 4\sigma$ anomaly in $(g-2)_\mu$ and serve as mediators between dark and visible matter. If such particles couple predominantly to heavier generations and decay invisibly, much of their best-motivated parameter space is inaccessible with existing experimental techniques. In this paper, we present a new fixed-target, missing-momentum search strategy to probe invisibly decaying particles that couple preferentially to muons. In our setup, a relativistic muon beam impinges on a thick active target. The signal consists of events in which a muon loses a large fraction of its incident momentum inside the target without initiating any detectable electromagnetic or hadronic activity in downstream veto systems. We propose a two-phase experiment, M$^3$ (Muon Missing Momentum), based at Fermilab. Phase 1 with $\sim 10^{10}$ muons on target can test the remaining parameter space for which light invisibly-decaying particles can resolve the $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly, while Phase 2 with $\sim 10^{13}$ muons on target can test much of the predictive parameter space over which sub-GeV dark matter achieves freeze-out via muon-philic forces, including gauged $U(1)_{L_\mu - L_\tau}$.},
doi = {10.1007/JHEP09(2018)153},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1439466}, journal = {Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)},
issn = {1029-8479},
number = 9,
volume = 2018,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Sep 26 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 66 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Dark bremsstrahlung signal process for simplified models with invisibly decaying scalar (left) and vector (right) forces that couple predominantly to muons. In both cases, a relativistic muon beam is incident on a fixed target and scatters coherently off a nucleus to produce the new particle as initial- ormore » final-state radiation.« less

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