Dark photons and axion-like particles at the Electron-Ion Collider in China

TL;DR

The paper evaluates the Electron-Ion Collider in China’s potential to detect dark photons and axion-like particles, exploring new parameter spaces beyond current experimental constraints through various search strategies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed sensitivity analysis of the EicC for dark photons and ALPs, highlighting its ability to probe previously unexplored regions of parameter space.

Findings

EicC can probe dark photons between meson decay and beam dump constraints.

EicC can detect ALPs with masses 0.1-5 GeV and couplings up to 10^6 GeV.

Projected sensitivities surpass current experimental bounds.

Abstract

The Electron-Ion Collider in China (EicC), a proposed high-luminosity facility with advanced charged particle and photon detection capabilities, provides unique opportunities to uncover new physics beyond the Standard Model. We analyze its sensitivity to dark photons produced through electron bremsstrahlung in coherent scattering. Thanks to its beam energy settings, it has the potential to comprehensively probe the previously unexplored parameter space between the constraints from meson decays and beam dumps below $\mathcal{O}(1)$ GeV with displaced-vertex search. Additionally, the EicC has the potential to probe axion-like particles (ALPs) in the mass range $ 0.1 \, \text{GeV} \lesssim m_a \lesssim 5 \, \text{GeV} $, with a coupling reach of $ \Lambda \lesssim 10^6 \, \text{GeV} $ , by combining the prompt-decay and displaced-vertex searches. The projected sensitivities to ALPs exceed the current bounds.