Search by the SENSEI Experiment for Millicharged Particles Produced in the NuMI Beam
Millicharged particles appear in several extensions of the standard model, but have not yet been detected. These hypothetical particles could be produced by an intense proton beam striking a fixed target. We use data collected in 2020 by the SENSEI experiment in the MINOS cavern at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory to search for ultrarelativistic millicharged particles produced in collisions of protons in the NuMI beam with a fixed graphite target. The absence of any ionization events with 3 to 6 electrons in the SENSEI data allow us to place world-leading constraints on millicharged particles for masses between 30 to 380 MeV. This work also demonstrates the potential of utilizing low-threshold detectors to investigate new particles in beam-dump experiments, and motivates a future experiment designed specifically for this purpose.
Authors
- Darío Rodrigues (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7952-7168)
- Sravan Munagavalasa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5442-3469)
- Mariano Cababié (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9281-5375)
- Yaron Korn
- N. Saffold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6358-9228)
- L. Barak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-2726)
- Leandro Stefanazzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-1981)
- Ana Martina Botti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6396-2467)
- Javier Tiffenberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1126-2941)
- Aman Singal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9426-1863)
- S. Holland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7218-3457)
- S. Scorza
- Sho Uemura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3458-4625)
- Guillermo Fernández Moroni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4238-6813)
- Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5305-2491)
- Rouven Essig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3066-0486)
- Roni Harnik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7293-7175)
- Aviv Orly
- Tomer Volansky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2275-8184)
- Ryan Plestid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0779-7289)
- Santiago E. Perez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9018-3392)
- Luke Chaplinsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4887-0657)
- Itay M. Bloch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1931-4344)
- A. Drlica-Wagner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8251-933X)
- Gustavo Cancelo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6926-4010)
- Ian T. Lawson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3547-2425)
- Steffon Luoma
- Zhen Liu
- T. Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4708-809X)
- Erez Etzion
- Kelly Stifter
- Miguel Sofo Haro
- J. Estrada
- M. B. Crisler
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR)
- University of Minnesota System (US)
- University of California System (US)
- Bariloche Atomic Centre (AR)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Instituto de Física La Plata (AR)
- Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (FR)
- Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (AR)
- Institut des langues et cultures d'Europe, Amérique, Afrique, Asie et Australie (FR)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-08-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.071801
- Citations
- 18
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 11.87
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Ambrose Monell Foundation
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- Canada Foundation for Innovation
- Israel Science Foundation
- Azrieli Foundation
- Ministry of Colleges and Universities
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
- European Research Council
- Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education of Israel