Abstract
We describe an experiment to search for a new vector boson A′ with weak coupling α′ ≳ 6 × 10−8 α to electrons (α = e 2/4π) in the mass range 65 MeV < m A′ < 550 MeV. New vector bosons with such small couplings arise naturally from a small kinetic mixing of the “dark photon” A′ with the photon — one of the very few ways in which new forces can couple to the Standard Model — and have received considerable attention as an explanation of various dark matter related anomalies. A′ bosons are produced by radiation off an electron beam, and could appear as narrow resonances with small production cross-section in the trident e + e − spectrum. We summarize the experimental approach described in a proposal submitted to Jefferson Laboratory’s PAC35, PR-10-009 [1]. This experiment, the A′ Experiment (APEX), uses the electron beam of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Laboratory (CEBAF) at energies of ≈ 1–4 GeV incident on 0:5 − 10% radiation length Tungsten multi-foil targets, and measures the resulting e + e − pairs to search for the A′ using the High Resolution Spectrometer and the septum magnet in Hall A. With a ∼ 1 month run, APEX will achieve very good sensitivity because the statistics of e + e − pairs will be ∼ 10,000 times larger in the explored mass range than any previous search for the A′ boson. These statistics and the excellent mass resolution of the spectrometers allow sensitivity to α′/α one to three orders of magnitude below current limits, in a region of parameter space of great theoretical and phenomenological interest. Similar experiments could also be performed at other facilities, such as the Mainz Microtron.
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
Hall A collaboration, R. Essig et al., A new proposal to Jefferson Lab PAC35: search for a new vector boson A′ decaying to e + e −, http://hallaweb.jlab.org/collab/PAC/PAC35/PR-10-009-Dark-Matter-Search.pdf, Jefferson Lab, Newport News U.S.A. (2009).
B. Holdom, Two U(1)’s and ϵ charge shifts, Phys. Lett. B 166 (1986) 196 [SPIRES].
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] [SPIRES].
M. Reece and L.-T. Wang, Searching for the light dark gauge boson in GeV-scale experiments, JHEP 07 (2009) 051 [arXiv:0904.1743] [SPIRES].
M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Astrophysical signatures of secluded dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 671 (2009) 391 [arXiv:0810.1502] [SPIRES].
B. Batell, M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Probing a secluded U(1) at B-factories, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 115008 [arXiv:0903.0363] [SPIRES].
R. Essig, P. Schuster and N. Toro, Probing dark forces and light hidden sectors at low-energy e + e − colliders, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 015003 [arXiv:0903.3941] [SPIRES].
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] [SPIRES].
F. Bossi, The role of KLOE and KLOE-2 in the search for a secluded gauge sector, arXiv:0904.3815 [SPIRES].
P.-f. Yin, J. Liu and S.-h. Zhu, Detecting light leptophilic gauge boson at BESIII detector, Phys. Lett. B 679 (2009) 362 [arXiv:0904.4644] [SPIRES].
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] [SPIRES].
M. Freytsis, G. Ovanesyan and J. Thaler, Dark force detection in low energy e-p collisions, JHEP 01 (2010) 111 [arXiv:0909.2862] [SPIRES].
M. Baumgart, C. Cheung, J.T. Ruderman, L.-T. Wang and I. Yavin, Non-Abelian dark sectors and their collider signatures, JHEP 04 (2009) 014 [arXiv:0901.0283] [SPIRES].
C. Cheung, J.T. Ruderman, L.-T. Wang and I. Yavin, Lepton jets in (supersymmetric) electroweak processes, JHEP 04 (2010) 116 [arXiv:0909.0290] [SPIRES].
D0 collaboration, V.M. Abazov et al., Search for dark photons from supersymmetric hidden valleys, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 081802 [arXiv:0905.1478] [SPIRES].
B. Batell, M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Multi-lepton signatures of a hidden sector in rare B decays, arXiv:0911.4938 [SPIRES].
B. Batell, M. Pospelov, A. Ritz and Y. Shang, Solar gamma rays powered by secluded dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 075004 [arXiv:0910.1567] [SPIRES].
P. Schuster, N. Toro and I. Yavin, Terrestrial and solar limits on long-lived particles in a dark sector, Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 016002 [arXiv:0910.1602] [SPIRES].
P. Schuster, N. Toro, N. Weiner and I. Yavin, High energy electron signals from dark matter annihilation in the sun, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 115012 [arXiv:0910.1839] [SPIRES].
P. Meade, S. Nussinov, M. Papucci and T. Volansky, Searches for long lived neutral particles, JHEP 06 (2010) 029 [arXiv:0910.4160] [SPIRES].
P.-f. Yin and S.-h. Zhu, Detecting light long-lived particle produced by cosmic ray, Phys. Lett. B 685 (2010) 128 [arXiv:0911.3338] [SPIRES].
R. Essig, N. Sehgal and L.E. Strigari, Bounds on cross-sections and lifetimes for dark matter annihilation and decay into charged leptons from gamma-ray observations of dwarf galaxies, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 023506 [arXiv:0902.4750] [SPIRES].
S. Galli, F. Iocco, G. Bertone and A. Melchiorri, CMB constraints on dark matter models with large annihilation cross-section, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 023505 [arXiv:0905.0003] [SPIRES].
T.R. Slatyer, N. Padmanabhan and D.P. Finkbeiner, CMB constraints on WIMP annihilation: energy absorption during the recombination epoch, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 043526 [arXiv:0906.1197] [SPIRES].
R. Essig, N. Sehgal, L. Strigari, M. Geha and J. Simon, Indirect dark matter detection limits from the ultra-faint milky way satellite Segue 1, Phys. Rev. D 82 (2010) 123503 [arXiv:1007.4199] [SPIRES].
Lead radius experiment (“PREX”) homepage, http://hallaweb.jlab.org/parity/prex/.
M. Pospelov, Secluded U(1) below the weak scale, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 095002 [arXiv:0811.1030] [SPIRES].
BABAR collaboration, B. Aubert et al., Search for dimuon decays of a light scalar in radiative transitions Υ(3S) → A′, arXiv:0902.2176 [SPIRES].
J.D. Bjorken et al., Search for neutral metastable penetrating particles produced in the SLAC beam dump, Phys. Rev. D 38 (1988) 3375 [SPIRES].
E.M. Riordan et al., A search for short lived axions in an electron beam dump experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59 (1987) 755 [SPIRES].
A. Bross et al., A search for shortlived particles produced in an electron beam dump, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67 (1991) 2942 [SPIRES].
M.J. Strassler, Possible effects of a hidden valley on supersymmetric phenomenology, hep-ph/0607160 [SPIRES].
M.J. Strassler and K.M. Zurek, Echoes of a hidden valley at hadron colliders, Phys. Lett. B 651 (2007) 374 [hep-ph/0604261] [SPIRES].
M.J. Strassler, Why unparticle models with mass gaps are examples of hidden valleys, arXiv:0801.0629 [SPIRES].
K.R. Dienes, C.F. Kolda and J. March-Russell, Kinetic mixing and the supersymmetric gauge hierarchy, Nucl. Phys. B 492 (1997) 104 [hep-ph/9610479] [SPIRES].
S.A. Abel and B.W. Schofield, Brane-antibrane kinetic mixing, millicharged particles and SUSY breaking, Nucl. Phys. B 685 (2004) 150 [hep-th/0311051] [SPIRES].
S.A. Abel, M.D. Goodsell, J. Jaeckel, V.V. Khoze and A. Ringwald, Kinetic mixing of the photon with hidden U(1)’s in string phenomenology, JHEP 07 (2008) 124 [arXiv:0803.1449] [SPIRES].
A. Ringwald, From axions to other WISPs, arXiv:0810.3106 [SPIRES].
Y. Nomura and J. Thaler, Dark matter through the axion portal, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 075008 [arXiv:0810.5397] [SPIRES].
J. Mardon, Y. Nomura and J. Thaler, Cosmic signals from the hidden sector, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 035013 [arXiv:0905.3749] [SPIRES].
N. Arkani-Hamed and N. Weiner, LHC signals for a superunified theory of dark matter, JHEP 12 (2008) 104 [arXiv:0810.0714] [SPIRES].
C. Cheung, J.T. Ruderman, L.-T. Wang and I. Yavin, Kinetic mixing as the origin of light dark scales, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 035008 [arXiv:0902.3246] [SPIRES].
D.E. Morrissey, D. Poland and K.M. Zurek, Abelian hidden sectors at a GeV, JHEP 07 (2009) 050 [arXiv:0904.2567] [SPIRES].
A. Katz and R. Sundrum, Breaking the dark force, JHEP 06 (2009) 003 [arXiv:0902.3271] [SPIRES].
WMAP collaboration, E. Komatsu et al., Five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations: cosmological interpretation, Astrophys. J. Suppl. 180 (2009) 330 [arXiv:0803.0547] [SPIRES].
SDSS collaboration, D.J. Eisenstein et al., Detection of the baryon acoustic peak in the large-scale correlation function of SDSS luminous red galaxies, Astrophys. J. 633 (2005) 560 [astro-ph/0501171] [SPIRES].
Supernova Cosmology Project collaboration, S. Perlmutter et al., Measurements of and Λ from 42 high-redshift supernovae, Astrophys. J. 517 (1999) 565 [astro-ph/9812133] [SPIRES].
Supernova Search Team collaboration, A.G. Riess et al., Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant, Astron. J. 116 (1998) 1009 [astro-ph/9805201] [SPIRES].
Supernova Cosmology Project collaboration, M. Kowalski et al., Improved cosmological constraints from new, old and combined supernova datasets, Astrophys. J. 686 (2008) 749 [arXiv:0804.4142] [SPIRES].
PAMELA collaboration, O. Adriani et al., An anomalous positron abundance in cosmic rays with energies 1.5–100 GeV, Nature 458 (2009) 607 [arXiv:0810.4995] [SPIRES].
Fermi-LAT collaboration, A.A. Abdo et al., Measurement of the cosmic ray e + plus e − spectrum from 20 GeV to 1TeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009) 181101 [arXiv:0905.0025] [SPIRES].
J. Chang et al., An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300–800 GeV, Nature 456 (2008) 362 [SPIRES].
H.E.S.S. collaboration, F. Aharonian et al., The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray electrons at TeV energies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 261104 [arXiv:0811.3894] [SPIRES].
H.E.S.S. collaboration, F. Aharonian et al., Probing the ATIC peak in the cosmic-ray electron spectrum with H.E.S.S, Astron. Astrophys. 508 (2009) 561 [arXiv:0905.0105] [SPIRES].
D.P. Finkbeiner, Microwave ISM emission observed by WMAP, Astrophys. J. 614 (2004) 186 [astro-ph/0311547] [SPIRES].
G. Dobler, D.P. Finkbeiner, I. Cholis, T.R. Slatyer and N. Weiner, The Fermi haze: a gamma-ray counterpart to the microwave haze, Astrophys. J. 717 (2010) 825 [arXiv:0910.4583] [SPIRES].
N. Arkani-Hamed, D.P. Finkbeiner, T.R. Slatyer and N. Weiner, A theory of dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 015014 [arXiv:0810.0713] [SPIRES].
J. Hisano, S. Matsumoto and M.M. Nojiri, Explosive dark matter annihilation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 031303 [hep-ph/0307216] [SPIRES].
J. March-Russell, S.M. West, D. Cumberbatch and D. Hooper, Heavy dark matter through the Higgs portal, JHEP 07 (2008) 058 [arXiv:0801.3440] [SPIRES].
M. Cirelli, M. Kadastik, M. Raidal and A. Strumia, Model-independent implications of the e + , e −, anti-proton cosmic ray spectra on properties of dark matter, Nucl. Phys. B 813 (2009) 1 [arXiv:0809.2409] [SPIRES].
I. Cholis, G. Dobler, D.P. Finkbeiner, L. Goodenough and N. Weiner, The case for a 700+ GeV WIMP: cosmic ray spectra from ATIC and PAMELA, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 123518 [arXiv:0811.3641] [SPIRES].
I. Cholis, D.P. Finkbeiner, L. Goodenough and N. Weiner, The PAMELA positron excess from annihilations into a light boson, JCAP 12 (2009) 007 [arXiv:0810.5344] [SPIRES].
Y. Cui, D.E. Morrissey, D. Poland and L. Randall, Candidates for inelastic dark matter, JHEP 05 (2009) 076 [arXiv:0901.0557] [SPIRES].
A. Sommerfeld, Über die Beugung und Bremsung der Elektronen (in German), Annalen Phys. 11 (1931) 257.
O. Adriani et al., A new measurement of the antiproton-to-proton flux ratio up to 100 GeV in the cosmic radiation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (2009) 051101 [arXiv:0810.4994] [SPIRES].
D.S.M. Alves, S.R. Behbahani, P. Schuster and J.G. Wacker, Composite inelastic dark matter, Phys. Lett. B 692 (2010) 323 [arXiv:0903.3945] [SPIRES].
D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Inelastic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 64 (2001) 043502 [hep-ph/0101138] [SPIRES].
S. Chang, G.D. Kribs, D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Inelastic dark matter in light of DAMA/LIBRA, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 043513 [arXiv:0807.2250] [SPIRES].
R. Bernabei et al., Dark matter particles in the galactic halo: results and implications from DAMA/NaI, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 13 (2004) 2127 [astro-ph/0501412] [SPIRES].
DAMA collaboration, R. Bernabei et al., First results from DAMA/LIBRA and the combined results with DAMA/NaI, Eur. Phys. J. C 56 (2008) 333 [arXiv:0804.2741] [SPIRES].
A.W. Strong et al., Gamma-ray continuum emission from the inner galactic region as observed with INTEGRAL/SPI, Astron. Astrophys. 444 (2005) 495 [astro-ph/0509290] [SPIRES].
D.P. Finkbeiner and N. Weiner, Exciting dark matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal, Phys. Rev. D 76 (2007) 083519 [astro-ph/0702587] [SPIRES].
Muon G-2 collaboration, G.W. Bennett et al., Final report of the muon E821 anomalous magnetic moment measurement at BNL, Phys. Rev. D 73 (2006) 072003 [hep-ex/0602035] [SPIRES].
HyperCP collaboration, H. Park et al., Evidence for the decay Σ+ → pμ + μ −, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005) 021801 [hep-ex/0501014] [SPIRES].
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] [SPIRES].
BABAR collaboration, B. Aubert et al., Search for dimuon decays of a light scalar in radiative transitions Υ(3S) → A′, arXiv:0902.2176 [SPIRES].
KTeV collaboration, E. Abouzaid et al., Measurement of the rare decay π 0 → e + e −, Phys. Rev. D 75 (2007) 012004 [hep-ex/0610072] [SPIRES].
F. Bossi, private communication.
K.J. Kim and Y.-S. Tsai, Improved Weizsacker-Williams method and its application to lepton and W boson pair production, Phys. Rev. D 8 (1973) 3109 [SPIRES].
Y.-S. Tsai, Pair production and bremsstrahlung of charged leptons, Rev. Mod. Phys. 46 (1974) 815 [Erratum ibid. 49 (1977) 421] [SPIRES].
Y.-S. Tsai, Axion bremsstrahlung by an electron beam, Phys. Rev. D 34 (1986) 1326 [SPIRES].
Particle Data Group collaboration, C. Amsler et al., Review of particle physics, Phys. Lett. B 667 (2008) 1 [SPIRES].
J. Alcorn et al., Basic instrumentation for hall A at Jefferson Lab, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 522 (2004) 294 [SPIRES].
P. Perez and A. Rosowsky, Intense source of slow positrons, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 532 (2004) 523 [hep-ex/0401030] [SPIRES].
J. Huang, HRS parameters and optics, at Searching for a new gauge boson at JLab, http://conferences.jlab.org/boson2010/Tuesday/Apex%20Optics.Huang.pptx, Jefferson Lab, Newport News U.S.A. (2010).
J. Alwall et al., MadGraph/MadEvent v4: the new web generation, JHEP 09 (2007) 028 [arXiv:0706.2334] [SPIRES].
D. Wiser, Inclusive photoproduction of protons kaons and pions at SLAC energies, Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison U.S.A. (1977) [SPIRES].
E04-012 collaboration, B. Wojtsekhowski et al., Searching for the Σ0 and ⊝++ partners to the exotic ⊝+ pentaquark in the channels H(e, e′K −)X and H(e, e′K +)X, http://hallaweb.jlab.org/experiment/E04-012/, Jefferson Lab, Newport News U.S.A. (2005).
Y. Qiang, private communication.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 1001.2557
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Essig, R., Schuster, P., Toro, N. et al. An electron fixed target experiment to search for a new vector boson A′ decaying to e+e−. J. High Energ. Phys. 2011, 9 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2011)009
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2011)009