NICA prospects in searches for light exotics from hidden sectors: the cases of hidden photons and axion-like particles

TL;DR

This paper evaluates NICA's potential to detect light exotic particles like hidden photons and axion-like particles, highlighting its unique sensitivity to unexplored parameter regions in these models.

Contribution

The study provides the first estimates of NICA's sensitivity to light hidden sector particles, showing its capability to explore new parameter space regions.

Findings

NICA can probe hidden photon and axion-like particle models with masses 30-500 MeV.

Some parameter regions are inaccessible to other experiments.

NICA could discover new physics with 5σ significance after one year.

Abstract

We present first estimates of NICA sensitivity to Standard Model extensions with light hypothetical particles singlet under the known gauge transformations. Our analysis reveals that NICA can explore new regions in the parameter spaces of models with a hidden vector and models with an axion-like particle of masses about 30-500\,MeV. Some of these regions seem unreachable by other ongoing and approved future projects. NICA has good prospects in discovery ($5\sigma$) of the new physics after 1 year of data taking.