Sensitivity of the SHiP experiment to dark photons decaying to a pair of charged particles

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Documents

  • C. Ahdida
  • A. Akmete
  • R. Albanese
  • A. Alexandrov
  • A. Anokhina
  • S. Aoki
  • G. Arduini
  • E. Atkin
  • N. Azorskiy
  • J. J. Back
  • A. Bagulya
  • F. Baaltasar Dos Santos
  • A. Baranov
  • F. Bardou
  • G. J. Barker
  • M. Battistin
  • J. Bauche
  • A. Bay
  • M.B. Bayliss
  • G. Bencivenni
  • A. Y. Berdnikov
  • Y. A. Berdnikov
  • M. Bertani
  • C. Betancourt
  • Bezshyiko
  • O. Bezshyyko
  • D. Bick
  • S. Bieschke
  • A. Blanco
  • J. Boehm
  • M. Bogomilov
  • Boiarska
  • K. Bondarenko
  • W. M. Bonivento
  • J. Borburgh
  • A. Boyarsky
  • R. Brenner
  • D. Breton
  • Marita Buescher
  • A. Buonaura
  • S. Buontempo
  • S. Cadeddu
  • A. Calcaterra
  • M. Calviani
  • M. Campanelli
  • M. Casolino
  • K. S. Lee
  • Ruchayskiy, Oleg
  • J. L. Tastet
  • Xella, Stefania
  • SHiP Collaboration

Dark photons are hypothetical massive vector particles that could mix with ordinary photons. The simplest theoretical model is fully characterised by only two parameters: the mass of the dark photon m(gamma)D and its mixing parameter with the photon, epsilon. The sensitivity of the SHiP detector is reviewed for dark photons in the mass range between 0.002 and 10 GeV. Different productionmechanisms are simulated, with the dark photons decaying to pairs of visible fermions, including both leptons and quarks. Exclusion contours are presented and compared with those of past experiments. The SHiP detector is expected to have a unique sensitivity for m. D ranging between 0.8 and 3.3(-0.5)(+0.2) GeV, and epsilon(2) ranging between 10(-11) and 10(-17).

Original languageEnglish
Article number451
JournalEuropean Physical Journal C
Volume81
Issue number5
Number of pages17
ISSN1434-6044
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021

    Research areas

  • PROTON-PROTON COLLISIONS, WEIZSACKER-WILLIAMS METHOD, VECTOR GAUGE BOSON, PHI-MESON DECAYS, PARTON DISTRIBUTIONS, SEARCH, E(+)E(-), LEPTON, LIMITS, PI(0)

ID: 276215925