Dark Matter Search in a Proton Beam Dump with MiniBooNE

Journal Article · Wed May 31 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.221803· OSTI ID:1346825

Aguilar-Arevalo, A. A.; Backfish, M.; Bashyal, A.; Batell, B.; Brown, B. C.; Carr, R.; Chatterjee, A.; Cooper, R. L.; deNiverville, P.; Dharmapalan, R.; Djurcic, Z.; Ford, R.; Garcia, F. G.; Garvey, G. T.; Grange, J.; Green, J. A.; Huelsnitz, W.; de Icaza Astiz, I. L.; Karagiorgi, G.; Katori, T. ; Ketchum, W.; Kobilarcik, T.; Liu, Q.; Louis, W. C.; Marsh, W.; Moore, C. D.; Mills, G. B.; Mirabal, J.; Nienaber, P.; Pavlovic, Z.; Perevalov, D.; Ray, H.; Roe, B. P.; Shaevitz, M. H.; Shahsavarani, S.; Stancu, I.; Tayloe, R.; Taylor, C.; Thornton, R. T.; Van de Water, R.; Wester, W.; White, D. H.; Yu, J.

The MiniBooNE-DM Collaboration searched for vector-boson mediated production of dark matter using the Fermilab 8-GeV Booster proton beam in a dedicated run with 1.86 × 10²⁰ protons delivered to a steel beam dump. The MiniBooNE detector, 490 m downstream, is sensitive to dark matter via elastic scattering with nucleons in the detector mineral oil. Analysis methods developed for previous MiniBooNE scattering results were employed, and several constraining data sets were simultaneously analyzed to minimize systematic errors from neutrino flux and interaction rates. No excess of events over background was observed, leading to a 90% confidence limit on the dark matter cross section parameter, Y = ε²α_D(m_χ/m_V)⁴≲10^–8, for α_D = 0.5 and for dark matter masses of 0.01 < m_χ < 0.3 GeV in a vector portal model of dark matter. This is the best limit from a dedicated proton beam dump search in this mass and coupling range and extends below the mass range of direct dark matter searches. Here, these results demonstrate a novel and powerful approach to dark matter searches with beam dump experiments.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: MiniBooNE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1346825
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1361001
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-17-059-AD-E-ND; arXiv:1702.02688; PRLTAO; oai:inspirehep.net:1512773
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 22; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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