Exploring Leptophilic Dark Matter with NA64-$\mu$

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of the NA64-mu experiment to detect light leptophilic dark matter and scalar mediators, which could also explain the muon g-2 anomaly, highlighting the complementarity with other probes.

Contribution

It presents a novel study of NA64-mu's sensitivity to leptophilic dark sectors and scalar mediators, linking dark matter detection with the muon g-2 discrepancy.

Findings

NA64-mu can probe parameter space relevant for leptophilic dark matter

Scalar mediators could explain the muon g-2 anomaly within this framework

Complementarity with other terrestrial and astrophysical searches is emphasized

Abstract

We investigate the prospects for detecting light leptophilic dark sectors with a missing-momentum experiment at NA64 running in muon mode. In particular, we consider models in which dark matter connects to the visible sector through a lepton- or muon-specific scalar mediator. These scalars can also account for the $\sim 3.5\sigma$ discrepancy between the measured and predicted values of $(g-2)_{\mu}$ . We emphasize the complementarity between NA64-$\mu$ and other terrestrial and astrophysical probes.