Searches for new light particles at the Troitsk Meson Factory (TiMoFey)

TL;DR

The paper explores the potential of the Troitsk Meson Factory to discover new light, feebly interacting particles like axion-like particles, hidden photons, and millicharged particles through specialized detection methods.

Contribution

It proposes new experimental approaches and detector configurations at TiMoFey to explore uncharted parameter spaces for light particles beyond current limits.

Findings

TiMoFey can access new parameter regions for axion-like particles and hidden photons.

The facility can probe previously unreachable ranges for millicharged particles.

Potential applications include dark matter detection and neutrino physics studies.

Abstract

The project of a new accelerator complex at the Institute for Nuclear Research of RAS in Troitsk has recently been included in the Russian National Program ``Fundamental Properties of Matter". It will sustain a proton beam with a current of 300 (100) $\mu$A and a proton kinetic energy of $T_p=423\,(1300)$ MeV at the first (second) stage of operation. The complex is multidisciplinary, and here we investigate its prospects in exploring new physics with light, feebly interacting particles. We find that TiMoFey can access new regions of parameter space of models with light axion-like particles and models with hidden photons, provided by a generic multipurpose detector installed downstream the proton beam dump. The signature to be exploited is the decay of a new particle into a pair of known particles inside the detector. Likewise, TiMoFey can probe previously unreachable ranges of parameters of models with millicharged particles obtained in measurements with detectors recognizing energy deposits associated with elastic scattering of new particles, passing through the detector volume. The latter detector may be useful for dark matter searches, as well as for studies of neutrino physics suggested at the facility in the Program framework.