Search for Light Neutral Bosons in the TREK/E36 Experiment at J-PARC

TL;DR

This paper reports on a search for light neutral gauge bosons in kaon decays at J-PARC, aiming to explore physics beyond the Standard Model related to dark matter and muon anomalies.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental search for light $U(1)$ gauge bosons in the muonic $K^+$ decay channel at J-PARC, setting upper limits on their branching ratios.

Findings

Preliminary upper limits for $A'$ branching ratios at 95% CL.

Simulation results constrain the mass range of 20-100 MeV/$c^2$.

The experiment enhances sensitivity to light gauge bosons linked to dark matter and muon anomalies.

Abstract

The Standard Model (SM) represents our best description of the subatomic world and it has been very successful in explaining how elementary particles interact under the influence of the fundamental forces. Despite its far reaching success in describing the building blocks of matter, the SM is still incomplete; falling short to explain dark matter, baryogenesis, neutrino masses and much more. The E36 experiment conducted at J-PARC in Japan, allows for sensitivity to search for light $U(1)$ gauge bosons, in the muonic $K^+$ decay channel. Such $U(1)$ bosons could be associated with dark matter or explain established muon-related anomalies such as the muon $g_{\mu}-2$ value, and the proton radius puzzle. A scintillating fiber target was used to stop a beam of positively charged $K$ mesons. The $K^+$ products were detected with a large-acceptance toroidal spectrometer capable of tracking charged particles with high resolution, combined with a large solid angle CsI(TI) photon detector and particle ID systems. A realistic simulation was employed to search for these rare decays in the mass range of 20$-$100 MeV/$c^2$. Preliminary results of the upper limits for the $A^\prime$ branching ratio $\mathcal{B}r(A^\prime)$ extracted at 95\% CL, will be discussed.