New searches at the reactor experiments based on the dark axion portal

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel reactor experiment to detect dark sector particles, specifically dark photons decaying into photons and axions via the dark axion portal, enhancing the search for light dark matter.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental approach utilizing existing reactor sources to explore the dark axion portal and its potential to produce detectable monophoton signatures.

Findings

Potential sensitivity estimates for existing reactor detectors

Feasibility of detecting dark photon decay signatures

Enhanced search strategies for light dark sector particles

Abstract

A nuclear reactor is a powerful tool to study neutrinos and light dark sector particles. Some of the reactor experiments have proven to be extremely useful already. Considering the great interest in the power of intensity frontier to search for new light particles, it would be desirable to explore more possibilities to exploit the existing reactor power sources for particle physics research. We suggest a new reactor experiment searching for the dark sector. The dark photon can be produced in a reactor core and decay into a photon and an axion in the presence of the dark axion portal through an axion-photon-dark photon vertex. We investigate the potential to search for this new vertex with a monophoton signature and present the expected sensitivities at some of the existing reactor neutrino experiment detectors.