First displaced vertex search for electroproduced dark-sector strongly interacting massive particles by the HPS experiment
The Heavy Photon Search experiment (HPS) is a fixed-target, electron beam experiment designed to search for <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:msup> <a:mi>e</a:mi> <a:mo>+</a:mo> </a:msup> <a:msup> <a:mi>e</a:mi> <a:mo>−</a:mo> </a:msup> </a:math> mass resonances and displaced decays using a forward acceptance spectrometer. This paper details the search for naturally long-lived “dark” vector mesons ( <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <c:msub> <c:mi>V</c:mi> <c:mi>D</c:mi> </c:msub> </c:math> ) arising from a dark sector of beyond-Standard-Model strongly interacting massive particles, characterized by a QCD-like <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <e:mi>S</e:mi> <e:mi>U</e:mi> <e:mo stretchy="false">(</e:mo> <e:mn>3</e:mn> <e:msub> <e:mo stretchy="false">)</e:mo> <e:mi>D</e:mi> </e:msub> </e:math> symmetry and coupled to the Standard Model photon via a new <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <i:mi>U</i:mi> <i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo> <i:mn>1</i:mn> <i:msub> <i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo> <i:mi>D</i:mi> </i:msub> </i:math> gauge interaction mediated by the “heavy photon,” or <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <m:msup> <m:mi>A</m:mi> <m:mo>′</m:mo> </m:msup> </m:math> . The results are based on an integrated luminosity of <o:math xmlns:o="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <o:mrow> <o:mn>10</o:mn> <o:mtext> </o:mtext> <o:mn>608</o:mn> <o:mtext> </o:mtext> <o:mtext> </o:mtext> <o:mrow> <o:msup> <o:mrow> <o:mi>nb</o:mi> </o:mrow> <o:mrow> <o:mo>−</o:mo> <o:mn>1</o:mn> </o:mrow> </o:msup> </o:mrow> </o:mrow> </o:math> collected during the 2016 HPS engineering run. The displaced vertex search for <q:math xmlns:q="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <q:mrow> <q:msub> <q:mrow> <q:mi>V</q:mi> </q:mrow> <q:mrow> <q:mi>D</q:mi> </q:mrow> </q:msub> <q:mo stretchy="false">→</q:mo> <q:msup> <q:mrow> <q:mi>e</q:mi> </q:mrow> <q:mrow> <q:mo>+</q:mo> </q:mrow> </q:msup> <q:msup> <q:mrow> <q:mi>e</q:mi> </q:mrow> <q:mrow> <q:mo>−</q:mo> </q:mrow> </q:msup> </q:mrow> </q:math> in the <t:math xmlns:t="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <t:msup> <t:mi>e</t:mi> <t:mo>+</t:mo> </t:msup> <t:msup> <t:mi>e</t:mi> <t:mo>−</t:mo> </t:msup> </t:math> invariant mass range 39–179 MeV showed no statistically significant evidence for signal above the QED background.
Authors
- Alic Shen Spellman
- M. Garçon
- D. Calvo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6006-7467)
- Christopher B. Field (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1684-8247)
- Silvia Niccolai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0225-9118)
- R. Paremuzyan
- M. Battaglieri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5002-8771)
- I. Jaeglé (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7767-3420)
- Sho Uemura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3458-4625)
- Mayeen Uddin Khandaker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3772-294X)
- Philip Schuster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6959-8974)
- B. Raydo
- Benjamin Reese
- L. Colaneri
- S. Bueltmann
- Martha Solt
- Rouven Essig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3066-0486)
- Holly Szumila-Vance (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2548-4016)
- K. Moffeit
- P. Palazzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4861-391X)
- Brendan Crowe
- C. Cuevas
- S.V. Boyarinov
- M. Bondí (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8297-9184)
- N. Graf
- A. Celentano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-2983)
- H. Egiyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5881-3616)
- L. Lanza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-532X)
- Massimo Napoli
- Natalya Dashyan
- Valeria Sipala
- A. Rizzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5597-8514)
- D. Sokhan
- M. Guidal
- Allen Odian
- Hakob Voskanyan
- A. Filippi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4715-8748)
- J. Va’vra
- P. Butti
- M. Sirendi
- L. Tompkins
- W. E. Cooper
- W. K. Brooks
- K. Livingston
- J. A. Jaros
- N. Gevorgyan
- M. Ungaro
- L. Elouadrhiri
- M. Carpinelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8205-930X)
- C. Bravo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1102-8247)
- Emrys Peets
- Anonymous
- L. B. Weinstein
- M. Graham
- L. Marsicano
- S. Gaiser
- M. Holtrop
- T. Eichlersmith
- A. Grillo
- T. Cao
- C. Munoz Camacho
- M. Osipenko
- S. McCarty
- M. Diamond
- O. Moreno
- B. McKinnon
- A. Simonyan
- N. Toro
- R. O’Dwyer
- B. Wojtsekhowski
- S. Paul
- K. A. Griffioen
- R. P. Johnson
- R. Herbst
- A. Deur
- F. X. Girod
- N. A. Baltzell
- A. D’Angelo
- R. Dupre
- Y. G. Sharabian
- A. Freyberger
- V. Fadeyev
- T. Nelson
- V. D. Burkert
- T. Maruyama
- E. Leonora
- N. Randazzo
Institutions
- Idaho State University (US)
- University of Rome Tor Vergata (IT)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory (AM)
- University of Padua (IT)
- University of Sassari (IT)
- William & Mary (US)
- University of New Hampshire at Manchester (US)
- Perimeter Institute (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Florida International University (US)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- University of Minnesota System (US)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- University of California System (US)
- Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (US)
- University of Catania (IT)
- Dominion University College (GH)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (IT)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- University of Milano-Bicocca (IT)
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- Old Dominion University (US)
- Catholic University of America (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Published
- 2026-02-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/2k3q-9mhj
- Primary Topic
- Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00