Sensitivities on dark photon from the Forward Physics Experiments

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how upcoming forward physics experiments can detect or constrain dark photons through neutrino-electron scattering, comparing their sensitivity to existing experimental limits across a broad dark photon mass range.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive sensitivity analysis of forward physics experiments for dark photons, including $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge coupling and kinetic mixing parameters, across a wide mass spectrum.

Findings

Forward physics experiments can improve sensitivity for certain dark photon masses.

Sensitivity does not improve for $M_{A'} < 1$ GeV at these facilities.

Current limits are comparable or better for low mass dark photons.

Abstract

Neutrino-electron scattering experiments can explore the potential presence of a light gauge boson $A'$ which arises from an additional $U(1)_{B-L}$ group, or a dark photon $A'$ which arises from a dark sector and has kinetic mixing with the SM hypercharge gauge field. We generically call it a dark photon. In this study, we investigate the effect of the dark photon on neutrino-electron scattering $\nu e^-\rightarrow\nu e^-$ at the newly proposed forward physics experiments such as FASER$\nu$, FASER$\nu2$, SND@LHC and FLArE(10 tons). We estimate the anticipated sensitivities to the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge coupling in a wide range of the dark photon mass $M_{A'}$. We compare the sensitivities of the proposed forward physics experiments with the current limits from TEXONO, GEMMA, BOREXINO, LSND, and CHARM II as well as NA64e experiments. We also extend the calculation to obtain the sensitivities on the kinetic mixing parameter $\epsilon$ in a wide range of dark photon mass $M_{A'}$. We demonstrate that the sensitivities do not improve for $M_{A'} < 1 $ GeV at the Forward Physics Facilities.