NO LESS: Novel Opportunities for Light Exotic Searches at the SPS

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of a reconfigured NA62 experiment at CERN for detecting feebly interacting particles in a beam-dump setup, highlighting its competitive sensitivity for new physics searches.

Contribution

It compares current and hypothetical future setups, emphasizing the importance of geometric optimization for detecting light exotic particles.

Findings

Minimal reconfiguration of NA62 can achieve high sensitivity.

Reconfigured setup allows immediate data collection post-beam availability.

Geometric setup significantly impacts detection sensitivity.

Abstract

A powerful way to test models with feebly interacting particles in the MeV to GeV mass range is through proton beam-dump experiments. In this paper, we compare the current sensitivity of CERN's NA62 experiment running in beam-dump mode with that of a hypothetical experiment using the same detectors in a future CERN ECN3 beam-dump facility. When optimising such an experiment, the geometric setup is particularly relevant for the specific new-physics scenario under study, since different production mechanisms can generate different angular distributions of new particles. We show that even the most minimalistic reconfiguration of the existing NA62 experiment's detectors can already provide a very competitive sensitivity and collect data immediately after the beam is available.