Search for a dark photon and an invisible dark Higgs boson in $\mu^+\mu^-$ and missing energy final states with the Belle II experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for dark sector particles, the dark photon and dark Higgs boson, in electron-positron collisions at Belle II, setting the first limits in the specified mass range with no observed signal.

Contribution

First experimental limits on dark photon and dark Higgs boson production in the specified mass range using Belle II data.

Findings

No evidence for the signal was observed.

Set exclusion limits on cross section and coupling parameters.

Limits are the first in this mass range.

Abstract

The dark photon $A^\prime$ and the dark Higgs boson $h^\prime$ are hypothetical particles predicted in many dark sector models. We search for the simultaneous production of $A^\prime$ and $h^\prime$ in the dark Higgsstrahlung process $e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow A^\prime \, h^\prime$ with $A^\prime \rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ and $ h^\prime$ invisible in electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019. With an integrated luminosity of 8.34 fb$^{-1}$, we observe no evidence for signal. We obtain exclusion limits at 90% Bayesian credibility in the range of 1.7--5.0 fb on the cross section and in the range of $1.7 \times10^{-8}$--$200 \times10^{-8}$ on the effective coupling $\varepsilon^2 \times \alpha_D$ for the $A^\prime$ mass in the range of 4.0 GeV/$c^2$ $< M_{A^\prime}< 9.7$ GeV/$c^2$ and for the $h^\prime$ mass $M_{h^\prime} < M_{A^\prime}$, where $\varepsilon$ is the mixing strength between the standard model and the dark photon and $\alpha_D$ is the coupling of the dark photon to the dark Higgs boson. Our limits are the first in this mass range.