Searching in the dark: the hunt for the dark photon
Alessandra Filippi, Marzio De Napoli
备注：
36 pages, 12 figures ~ Changes in new submission: Fig.12 caption, line 8: ref. [52] replaces [71] ~ Additional references suggested after proofs submission: about dark photon "thermal targets" and the definition of y: Izaguirre E. et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015), 251301 - about inelastic dark matter models: R. Foot and S. Vagnozzi, Phys. Rev. D 91 (2015) 023512; JCAP 1607 (2016) 013
The existence of Dark Matter (DM) is a well established fact since many decades, thanks to the observation of the effects of its gravitational interaction with the ordinary matter in the Universe. However, our knowledge of the Dark Matter features is still rather scarce. Indeed, one of the biggest quests in fundamental science today is the investigation of Dark Matter nature, from its origin to its composition, and the way its constituents interact with the ordinary matter, apart from gravity. Huge and ambitious efforts have been spent in the last years into its identification, concentrating especially on the search of viable Weakly Interacting Massive Particle candidates. However, no positive results have been achieved so far along this direction. On the other hand, many fascinating new ideas and models for its interpretation have been blooming: among them, an intriguing hypothesis is that the Dark Matter constituents could be neutral under Standard Model interactions, but they could interact through a new, still unknown, force under a "hidden" charge. This new hidden symmetry would be mediated by a massive gauge boson, the dark photon, which is expected to couple to the Standard Model via a kinetic mixing. The search for such a massive mediator has been pursued with large enthusiasm and dedication in the latest years, as its observation could be within the reach of many already existing experimental facilities, both based on accelerators
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Extensions of the Standard Model (SM) gauge group with a new $U(1)_X$ predict an additional gauge boson. Through kinetic mixing with the SM photons featured by a coupling $ε$, the ensuing so-called dark photons $γ'$, which acquire mass as a result of the breaking of the gauge group $U(1)_X$, can interact with the SM field content. These massive dark photons can therefore decay to pairs of leptons, hadrons, or quarks, depending on their mass $m_{γ'}$. In this work, we discuss searches for dark photons in the mass range around and below one GeV at the LHeC and FCC-he colliders. The signal is giv…
The dark matter puzzle is one of the most important fundamental physics questions in 21 century. There is no doubt that solving the puzzle will be a new milestone for human beings in the way of deeper understanding the mother nature. Here we propose to use the Shanghai laser electron gamma source (SLEGS) to search for dark matter candidates particles, including dark pseudo scalar particles, dark scalar particles, and dark photons. Our simulations show that electron facilities like SLEGS with some upgrading could be competitive platforms in searching for light dark matter particles with mass un…
