New Limits on Hidden Photons from Past Electron Beam Dumps

TL;DR

This paper reviews and updates constraints on hidden photons, light gauge bosons beyond the Standard Model, using past electron beam dump experiments and introduces new limits from recent experiments at KEK and LAL.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive summary of limits on hidden photons from past beam dump experiments, including new constraints from recent data.

Findings

New limits on hidden photons from KEK and LAL experiments

Updated constraints considering experimental acceptances via Monte Carlo simulations

Enhanced understanding of parameter space exclusion for hidden photons

Abstract

Hidden sectors with light extra U(1) gauge bosons, so-called hidden photons, have recently attracted some attention because they are a common feature of physics beyond the Standard Model like string theory and supersymmetry and additionally are phenomenologically of great interest regarding recent astrophysical observations. The hidden photon is already constrained by various laboratory experiments and presently searched for in running as well as upcoming experiments. We summarize the current status of limits on hidden photons from past electron beam dump experiments including two new limits from such experiments at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Japan (KEK) and the Laboratoire de l'accelerateur lineaire (LAL, Orsay) that have so far not been considered. All our limits take into account the experimental acceptances obtained from Monte Carlo simulations.