Serendipity in dark photon searches

TL;DR

This paper develops a versatile framework for repurposing dark photon search data to constrain a broad class of vector particles, including those with various coupling schemes, enhancing the discovery potential for new physics.

Contribution

It introduces a data-driven recasting method for dark photon searches applicable to general vector bosons and provides software tools for broad application.

Findings

Constraints on a $B-L$ coupled vector boson derived

Limits set on a leptophobic $B$ boson with baryon number coupling

Bounds established for a protophobic force mediator

Abstract

Searches for dark photons provide serendipitous discovery potential for other types of vector particles. We develop a framework for recasting dark photon searches to obtain constraints on more general theories, which includes a data-driven method for determining hadronic decay rates. We demonstrate our approach by deriving constraints on a vector that couples to the $B\!-\!L$ current, a leptophobic $B$ boson that couples directly to baryon number and to leptons via $B$-$\gamma$ kinetic mixing, and on a vector that mediates a protophobic force. Our approach can easily be generalized to any massive gauge boson with vector couplings to the Standard Model fermions, and software to perform any such recasting is provided at https://gitlab.com/philten/darkcast .