Abstract
Assuming that dark matter particles interact with quarks via a GeV-scale mediator, we study dark matter production in fixed target collisions. The ensuing signal in a neutrino near detector consists of neutral-current events with an energy distribution peaked at higher values than the neutrino background. We find that for a Z ′ boson of mass around a few GeV that decays to dark matter particles, the dark matter beam produced by the Main Injector at Fermilab allows the exploration of a range of values for the gauge coupling that currently satisfy all experimental constraints. The NOνA near detector is well positioned for probing the presence of a dark matter beam, and future LBNF near detectors would provide more sensitive probes.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Particle Data Group collaboration, K. Olive et al., Review of particle physics, Chin. Phys. C 38 (2014) 090001 [INSPIRE].
P. Cushman et al., Working group report: WIMP dark matter direct detection, arXiv:1310.8327 [INSPIRE].
B.A. Dobrescu and C. Frugiuele, Hidden GeV-scale interactions of quarks, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (2014) 061801 [arXiv:1404.3947] [INSPIRE].
S. Tulin, New weakly-coupled forces hidden in low-energy QCD, Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 114008 [arXiv:1404.4370] [INSPIRE].
K. Anderson et al., The NuMI facility technical design report, FERMILAB-DESIGN-1998-01, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (1998) [INSPIRE].
NOvA collaboration, R.B. Patterson, The NOvA experiment: status and outlook, Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl. B 235-236 (2013) 151 [arXiv:1209.0716] [INSPIRE].
NOvA collaboration, B.O’Sheg Oshinowo et al., Survey of the NOvA detectors at Fermilab, FERMILAB-CONF-13-466-AD-PPD, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (2013) [INSPIRE].
MINOS collaboration, Neutrino oscillation physics at Fermilab: the NuMI-MINOS project, NUMI-L-375, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (1998) [INSPIRE].
MINOS collaboration, J.L. Thron, The MINOS long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, NUMI-216, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (1996), pg. 1245 [INSPIRE].
V. Papadimitriou et al., Design of the LBNE beamline, FERMILAB-CONF-14-181-AD, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (2014) [INSPIRE].
B. Batell, M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Exploring portals to a hidden sector through fixed targets, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 095024 [arXiv:0906.5614] [INSPIRE].
P. deNiverville, M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Observing a light dark matter beam with neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 84 (2011) 075020 [arXiv:1107.4580] [INSPIRE].
P. deNiverville, D. McKeen and A. Ritz, Signatures of sub-GeV dark matter beams at neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 035022 [arXiv:1205.3499] [INSPIRE].
B. Batell, P. deNiverville, D. McKeen, M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Leptophobic dark matter at neutrino factories, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 115014 [arXiv:1405.7049] [INSPIRE].
MiniBooNE collaboration, R. Dharmapalan et al., Low mass WIMP searches with a neutrino experiment: a proposal for further MiniBooNE running, arXiv:1211.2258 [INSPIRE].
J. Goodman et al., Constraints on light Majorana dark matter from colliders, Phys. Lett. B 695 (2011) 185 [arXiv:1005.1286] [INSPIRE].
Y. Bai, P.J. Fox and R. Harnik, The Tevatron at the frontier of dark matter direct detection, JHEP 12 (2010) 048 [arXiv:1005.3797] [INSPIRE].
J. Goodman et al., Constraints on dark matter from colliders, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 116010 [arXiv:1008.1783] [INSPIRE].
P.J. Fox, R. Harnik, J. Kopp and Y. Tsai, Missing energy signatures of dark matter at the LHC, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 056011 [arXiv:1109.4398] [INSPIRE].
J. Goodman and W. Shepherd, LHC bounds on UV-complete models of dark matter, arXiv:1111.2359 [INSPIRE].
H. An, X. Ji and L.-T. Wang, Light dark matter and Z ′ dark force at colliders, JHEP 07 (2012) 182 [arXiv:1202.2894] [INSPIRE].
P.J. Fox, R. Harnik, R. Primulando and C.-T. Yu, Taking a razor to dark matter parameter space at the LHC, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 015010 [arXiv:1203.1662] [INSPIRE].
H. An, R. Huo and L.-T. Wang, Searching for low mass dark portal at the LHC, Phys. Dark Univ. 2 (2013) 50 [arXiv:1212.2221] [INSPIRE].
P. Fayet, Constraints on light dark matter and U bosons, from ψ, ϒ, K + , π 0 , η and η ′ decays, Phys. Rev. D 74 (2006) 054034 [hep-ph/0607318] [INSPIRE].
P. Fayet, U-boson production in e + e − annihilations, ψ and ϒ decays and light dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 75 (2007) 115017 [hep-ph/0702176] [INSPIRE].
P. Fayet, Invisible ϒ decays into light dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 054025 [arXiv:0910.2587] [INSPIRE].
G.K. Yeghiyan, ϒ decays into scalar dark matter, arXiv:0910.2071 [INSPIRE].
A. Badin and A.A. Petrov, Searching for light dark matter in heavy meson decays, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 034005 [arXiv:1005.1277] [INSPIRE].
M.L. Graesser, I.M. Shoemaker and L. Vecchi, A dark force for baryons, arXiv:1107.2666 [INSPIRE].
I.M. Shoemaker and L. Vecchi, Unitarity and monojet bounds on models for DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 015023 [arXiv:1112.5457] [INSPIRE].
M. Reece and L.-T. Wang, Searching for the light dark gauge boson in GeV-scale experiments, JHEP 07 (2009) 051 [arXiv:0904.1743] [INSPIRE].
J.D. Bjorken, R. Essig, P. Schuster and N. Toro, New fixed-target experiments to search for dark gauge forces, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 075018 [arXiv:0906.0580] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, P. Schuster, N. Toro and B. Wojtsekhowski, An electron fixed target experiment to search for a new vector boson A ′ decaying to e + e −, JHEP 02 (2011) 009 [arXiv:1001.2557] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, R. Harnik, J. Kaplan and N. Toro, Discovering new light states at neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 113008 [arXiv:1008.0636] [INSPIRE].
E. Izaguirre, G. Krnjaic, P. Schuster and N. Toro, New electron beam-dump experiments to search for MeV to few-GeV dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 114015 [arXiv:1307.6554] [INSPIRE].
D.E. Morrissey and A.P. Spray, New limits on light hidden sectors from fixed-target experiments, arXiv:1402.4817 [INSPIRE].
E. Izaguirre, G. Krnjaic, P. Schuster and N. Toro, Physics motivation for a pilot dark matter search at Jefferson laboratory, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 014052 [arXiv:1403.6826] [INSPIRE].
A.E. Nelson and N. Tetradis, Constraints on a new vector boson coupled to baryons, Phys. Lett. B 221 (1989) 80 [INSPIRE].
C.D. Carone and H. Murayama, Possible light U(1) gauge boson coupled to baryon number, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74 (1995) 3122 [hep-ph/9411256] [INSPIRE].
C.D. Carone and H. Murayama, Realistic models with a light U(1) gauge boson coupled to baryon number, Phys. Rev. D 52 (1995) 484 [hep-ph/9501220] [INSPIRE].
B.A. Dobrescu and F. Yu, Coupling-mass mapping of dijet peak searches, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 035021 [arXiv:1306.2629] [INSPIRE].
M. Duerr, P. Fileviez Perez and M.B. Wise, Gauge theory for baryon and lepton numbers with leptoquarks, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 231801 [arXiv:1304.0576] [INSPIRE].
CDF collaboration, T. Aaltonen et al., A search for dark matter in events with one jet and missing transverse energy in \( p\overline{p} \) collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 1.96 TeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 (2012) 211804 [arXiv:1203.0742] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for new phenomena with the monojet and missing transverse momentum signature using the ATLAS detector in \( \sqrt{s} \) = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions, Phys. Lett. B 705 (2011) 294 [arXiv:1106.5327] [INSPIRE].
ATLAS collaboration, Search for dark matter candidates and large extra dimensions in events with a jet and missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector, JHEP 04 (2013) 075 [arXiv:1210.4491] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for dark matter and large extra dimensions in monojet events in pp collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 7 TeV, JHEP 09 (2012) 094 [arXiv:1206.5663] [INSPIRE].
CMS collaboration, Search for dark matter, extra dimensions and unparticles in monojet events in proton-proton collisions at \( \sqrt{s} \) = 8 TeV, arXiv:1408.3583 [INSPIRE].
BaBar collaboration, B. Aubert et al., A search for invisible decays of the ϒ(1S), Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 251801 [arXiv:0908.2840] [INSPIRE].
BES collaboration, M. Ablikim et al., Search for the invisible decay of J/ψ in ψ(2S) → π + π − J/ψ, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 192001 [arXiv:0710.0039] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, J. Mardon, M. Papucci, T. Volansky and Y.-M. Zhong, Constraining light dark matter with low-energy e + e − colliders, JHEP 11 (2013) 167 [arXiv:1309.5084] [INSPIRE].
CRESST-II collaboration, G. Angloher et al., Results on low mass WIMPs using an upgraded CRESST-II detector, Eur. Phys. J. C 74 (2014) 3184 [arXiv:1407.3146] [INSPIRE].
DAMIC collaboration, J. Barreto et al., Direct search for low mass dark matter particles with CCDs, Phys. Lett. B 711 (2012) 264 [arXiv:1105.5191] [INSPIRE].
SuperCDMS collaboration, R. Agnese et al., Search for low-mass weakly interacting massive particles using voltage-assisted calorimetric ionization detection in the SuperCDMS experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 (2014) 041302 [arXiv:1309.3259] [INSPIRE].
D.P. Finkbeiner, S. Galli, T. Lin and T.R. Slatyer, Searching for dark matter in the CMB: a compact parameterization of energy injection from new physics, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 043522 [arXiv:1109.6322] [INSPIRE].
S. Galli, F. Iocco, G. Bertone and A. Melchiorri, Updated CMB constraints on dark matter annihilation cross-sections, Phys. Rev. D 84 (2011) 027302 [arXiv:1106.1528] [INSPIRE].
G. Hutsi, J. Chluba, A. Hektor and M. Raidal, WMAP7 and future CMB constraints on annihilating dark matter: implications on GeV-scale WIMPs, Astron. Astrophys. 535 (2011) A26 [arXiv:1103.2766] [INSPIRE].
T. Lin, H.-B. Yu and K.M. Zurek, On symmetric and asymmetric light dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 063503 [arXiv:1111.0293] [INSPIRE].
K.M. Zurek, Asymmetric dark matter: theories, signatures and constraints, Phys. Rept. 537 (2014) 91 [arXiv:1308.0338] [INSPIRE].
C. Boehm and P. Fayet, Scalar dark matter candidates, Nucl. Phys. B 683 (2004) 219 [hep-ph/0305261] [INSPIRE].
R. Essig, E. Kuflik, S.D. McDermott, T. Volansky and K.M. Zurek, Constraining light dark matter with diffuse X-ray and gamma-ray observations, JHEP 11 (2013) 193 [arXiv:1309.4091] [INSPIRE].
G. Steigman, B. Dasgupta and J.F. Beacom, Precise relic WIMP abundance and its impact on searches for dark matter annihilation, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 023506 [arXiv:1204.3622] [INSPIRE].
J. Alwall, M. Herquet, F. Maltoni, O. Mattelaer and T. Stelzer, MadGraph 5: going beyond, JHEP 06 (2011) 128 [arXiv:1106.0522] [INSPIRE].
N.D. Christensen and C. Duhr, FeynRules — Feynman rules made easy, Comput. Phys. Commun. 180 (2009) 1614 [arXiv:0806.4194] [INSPIRE].
MINOS collaboration, P. Adamson et al., Active to sterile neutrino mixing limits from neutral-current interactions in MINOS, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 (2011) 011802 [arXiv:1104.3922] [INSPIRE].
D.E. Soper, M. Spannowsky, C.J. Wallace and T.M.P. Tait, Scattering of dark particles with light mediators, Phys. Rev. D 90 (2014) 115005 [arXiv:1407.2623] [INSPIRE].
MiniBooNE and MINOS collaborations, P. Adamson et al., First measurement of ν μ and ν e events in an off-axis horn-focused neutrino beam, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009) 211801 [arXiv:0809.2447] [INSPIRE].
MicroBooNE collaboration, T. Katori, MicroBooNE, a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) neutrino experiment, AIP Conf. Proc. 1405 (2011) 250 [arXiv:1107.5112] [INSPIRE].
C. Admas et al., LAr1-ND: testing neutrino anomalies with multiple LAr TPC detectors at Fermilab, FERMILAB-PROPOSAL-1053, Fermilab, Batavia U.S.A. (2013) [INSPIRE].
LBNE collaboration, C. Adams et al., The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: exploring fundamental symmetries of the universe, arXiv:1307.7335 [INSPIRE].
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1410.1566
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Dobrescu, B.A., Frugiuele, C. GeV-scale dark matter: production at the Main Injector. J. High Energ. Phys. 2015, 19 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2015)019
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2015)019