No Arabic abstract
The hidden sector photon is a weakly interacting hypothetical particle with sub-eV mass that kinetically mixes with the photon. We describe a microwave frequency light shining through a wall experiment where a cryogenic resonant microwave cavity is used to try and detect photons that have passed through an impenetrable barrier, a process only possible via mixing with hidden sector photons. For a hidden sector photon mass of 53 $mu$eV we limit the hidden photon kinetic mixing parameter $chi < 1.7times10^{-7}$, which is an order of magnitude lower than previous bounds derived from cavity experiments in the same mass range. In addition, we use the cryogenic detector cavity to place new limits on the kinetic mixing parameter for hidden sector photons as a form of cold dark matter.
Hidden U(1) gauge symmetries are common to many extensions of the Standard Model proposed to explain dark matter. The hidden gauge vector bosons of such extensions may mix kinetically with Standard Model photons, providing a means for electromagnetic power to pass through conducting barriers. The ADMX detector was used to search for hidden vector bosons originating in an emitter cavity driven with microwave power. We exclude hidden vector bosons with kinetic couplings {chi} > 3.48x10-8 for masses less than 3 {mu}eV. This limit represents an improvement of more than two orders of magnitude in sensitivity relative to previous cavity experiments.
High-intensity proton beams impinging on a fixed target or beam dump allow to probe new physics via the production of new weakly-coupled particles in hadron decays. The CERN SPS provides opportunities to do so with the running NA62 experiment and the planned SHiP experiment. Reconstruction of kaon decay kinematics (beam mode) allows NA62 to probe for the existence of right-handed neutrinos and dark photons with masses below 0.45 GeV. Direct reconstruction of displaced vertices from the decays of new neutral particles (dump mode) will allow NA62 and SHiP to probe right-handed neutrinos with masses up to 5 GeV and mixings down to several orders of magnitude smaller than current constraints, in regions favoured in models which explain at once neutrino masses, matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter.
We report on the results from a search for dark matter axions with the HAYSTAC experiment using a microwave cavity detector at frequencies between 5.6-5.8$, rm Ghz$. We exclude axion models with two photon coupling $g_{agammagamma},gtrsim,2times10^{-14},rm GeV^{-1}$, a factor of 2.7 above the benchmark KSVZ model over the mass range 23.15$,<,$$m_a ,$<$,$24.0$,murm eV$. This doubles the range reported in our previous paper. We achieve a near-quantum-limited sensitivity by operating at a temperature $T<h u/2k_B$ and incorporating a Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA), with improvements in the cooling of the cavity further reducing the experiments system noise temperature to only twice the Standard Quantum Limit at its operational frequency, an order of magnitude better than any other dark matter microwave cavity experiment to date. This result concludes the first phase of the HAYSTAC program utilizing a conventional copper cavity and a single JPA.
In our quest for investigating the nature of dark matter from the way its constituents interact with ordinary matter, we propose an experiment using a pbo ~calorimeter to search for or set new limits on the production rate of i) hidden sector dark matter mediator in the $3 - 60$ MeV mass range via their $e^+e^-$ decay (or $gammagamma$ decay with limited tracking), and ii) the hypothetical X17 particle, claimed in two recent experiments. The search for these particles is motivated by new dark matter models and candidates introduced to account for the small-scale structure in astrophysical observations and anomalies such as the 4.2$sigma$ disagreement between experiments and the standard model prediction for the muon anomalous magnetic moment, and the excess of $e^+e^-$ pairs from the $^8$Be M1 nuclear transition to its ground state observed by the ATOMKI group. In these models the $1 - 100$ MeV mass range is particularly well-motivated and the lower part of this range still remains unexplored. The proposed direct detection experiment will use a magnetic-spectrometer-free setup (the PRad apparatus) to detect all three final state particles in the visible decay of the dark matter mediator allowing for an effective control of the background and will cover the mass range in a single setting. The use of the well-demonstrated PRad setup allows for an essentially ready-to-run and uniquely cost-effective search for dark matter mediator in the $3 - 60$ MeV mass range with a sensitivity of 7.2$times$10$^{-8}$ - 5.9$times$10$^{-9}$ to $epsilon^2$ the square of kinetic mixing interaction coupling constant. In the first appendix, we show an example of this type of analysis using the $^{12}$C data from the PRad experiment. In the second appendix, we detail the additional work that was done after submitting this proposal before presenting at the JLab PAC49.
If light hidden sector photons exist, they could be produced through kinetic mixing with solar photons in the eV energy range. We propose to search for this hypothetical hidden photon flux with the Super-Kamiokande and/or upgraded CAST detectors. The proposed experiments are sensitive to mixing strengths as small as 10^-9 for hidden photon masses in the sub eV region and, in the case of non-observation, would improve limits recently obtained from photon regeneration laser experiments in this mass region.