Kovalenko, Sergey

We report on a direct search for sub-GeV dark photons (A0 ), which might be produced in the reaction e−Z → e−ZA0 via kinetic mixing with photons by 100 GeV electrons incident on an active target in the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS. The dark photons would decay invisibly into dark matter particles resulting in events with large missing energy. No evidence for such decays was found with 2.75 × 109 electrons on target. We set new limits on the γ − A0 mixing strength and exclude the invisible A0 with a mass ≲100 MeV as an explanation of the muon gμ − 2 anomaly.

Abstract Extended scalar and fermion sectors offer new opportunities for generating the observed strong hierarchies in the fermion mass and mixing patterns of the Standard Model (SM). In this work, we elaborate on the prospects of a particular extension of the Inert Higgs doublet model where the SM hierarchies are generated sequentially by radiative virtual corrections in a fully renormalisable way, i.e. without adding any non-renormalisable Yukawa terms or soft-breaking operators to the scalar potential. Our model has a potential to explain the recently observed R K and R K∗ anomalies, thanks to the non universal U1X assignments of the fermionic fields that yield non universal Z′ couplings to fermions. We explicitly demonstrate the power of this model for generating the realistic quark, lepton and neutrino mass spectra. In particular, we show that due to the presence of both continuous and discrete family symmetries in the considered framework, the top quark acquires a tree-level mass, lighter quarks and leptons get their masses at one- and two-loop order, while neutrino masses are generated at three-loop level. The minimal field content, particle spectra and scalar potential of this model are discussed in detail.

The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) Collaboration has shown that the CERN SPS accelerator with its 400 GeV c proton beam offers a unique opportunity to explore the Hidden Sector [1–3]. The proposed experiment is an intensity frontier experiment which is capable of searching for hidden particles through both visible decays and through scattering signatures from recoil of electrons or nuclei. The high-intensity experimental facility developed by the SHiP Collaboration is based on a number of key features and developments which provide the possibility of probing a large part of the parameter space for a wide range of models with light long-lived superweakly interacting particles with masses up to O¹10º GeV c2 in an environment of extremely clean background conditions. This paper describes the proposal for the experimental facility together with the most important feasibility studies. The paper focuses on the challenging new ideas behind the beam extraction and beam delivery, the proton beam dump, and the suppression of beam-induced background.

We found a new important tree-level contribution to muon–electron nuclear conversion from neutrino exchange between two quarks in the same nucleon and demonstrated that this process, contrary to common belief, can be observed in the near future experiments if there exists a mixed sterile-active neutrino state νh heavier than the quark confinement scale Λc ∼ 1 GeV. From the present non-observation of muon–electron conversion we derive new experimental constraints on νh − νe,µ mixing

We discuss a radiative type-I seesaw. In these models, the radiative generation of Dirac neutrino masses allows to explain the smallness of the observed neutrino mass scale for rather light right-handed neutrino masses in a type-I seesaw. We first present the general idea in a model-independent way. This allows us to estimate the typical scale of right-handed neutrino mass as a function of the number of loops. We then present two example models, at the one- and two-loop level, which we use to discuss neutrino masses and lepton-flavor-violating constraints in more detail. For the two-loop example, right-handed neutrino masses must lie below 100 GeV, thus making this class of models testable in heavy neutral lepton searches.

A search for sub-GeV dark matter production mediated by a new vector boson A′, called dark photon, is performed by the NA64 experiment in missing energy events from 100 GeV electron interactions in an active beam dump at the CERN SPS. From the analysis of the data collected in the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 with 2.84×1011 electrons on target no evidence of such a process has been found. The most stringent constraints on the A′ mixing strength with photons and the parameter space for the scalar and fermionic dark matter in the mass range ≲0.2 GeV are derived, thus demonstrating the power of the active beam dump approach for the dark matter search.

A search is performed for a new sub-GeV vector boson (A0 ) mediated production of dark matter (χ) in the fixed-target experiment, NA64, at the CERN SPS. The A0 , called dark photon, can be generated in the reaction e−Z → e−ZA0 of 100 GeV electrons dumped against an active target followed by its prompt invisible decay A0 → χχ¯. The experimental signature of this process would be an event with an isolated electron and large missing energy in the detector. From the analysis of the data sample collected in 2016 corresponding to 4.3 × 1010 electrons on target no evidence of such a process has been found. New stringent constraints on the A0 mixing strength with photons, 10−5 ≲ ϵ ≲ 10−2, for the A0 mass range mA0 ≲ 1 GeV are derived. For models considering scalar and fermionic thermal dark matter interacting with the visible sector through the vector portal the 90% C.L. limits 10−11 ≲ y ≲ 10−6 on the dark-matter parameter y ¼ ϵ2αDð mχ mA0 Þ4 are obtained for the dark coupling constant αD ¼ 0.5 and dark-matter masses 0.001 ≲ mχ ≲ 0.5 GeV. The lower limits αD ≳ 10−3 for pseudo-Dirac dark matter in the mass region mχ ≲ 0.05 GeV are more stringent than the corresponding bounds from beam dump experiments. The results are obtained by using exact tree level calculations of the A0 production cross sections, which turn out to be significantly smaller compared to the one obtained in the Weizsäcker-Williams approximation for the mass region mA0 ≳ 0.1 GeV.

We study nuclear µ−–e− conversion in the general framework of an effective Lagrangian approach without referring to any specific realization of the physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) responsible for lepton flavor violation (L/f ). We show that vector meson exchange between lepton and nucleon currents plays an important role in this process. A new issue of this mechanism is the presence of the strange quark vector current contribution induced by the φ meson. This allows us to extract new limits on the L/f lepton–quark effective couplings from the existing experimental data.

Abstract In July 2018 an optimization run for the proposed charm cross section measurement for SHiP was performed at the CERN SPS. A heavy, moving target instrumented with nuclear emulsion films followed by a silicon pixel tracker was installed in front of the Goliath magnet at the H4 proton beam-line. Behind the magnet, scintillating-fibre, drift-tube and RPC detectors were placed. The purpose of this run was to validate the measurement's feasibility, to develop the required analysis tools and fine-tune the detector layout. In this paper, we present the track reconstruction in the pixel tracker and the track matching with the moving emulsion detector. The pixel detector performed as expected and it is shown that, after proper alignment, a vertex matching rate of 87% is achieved.

Abstract We propose a class of models providing an explanation of the origin of light neutrino masses, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis and offering viable dark matter candidates. In these models the Majorana masses of the active neutrino are generated by the inverse seesaw mechanism with the lepton number violating right-handed Majorana neutrino masses μ arising at three loops. The latter is ensured by the preserved discrete symmetries, which also guarantee the stability of the dark matter candidate. We focus on one of these models and perform a detailed analysis of the phenomenology of its leptonic sector. The model can successfully accommodate baryogenesis through leptogenesis in both weak and strong washout regimes. The lightest heavy fermion turns out to be a viable dark matter candidate, provided that the entries of the Majorana submatrix μ are in the keV to MeV range. The solutions are consistent with the experimental constraints, accommodating both mass orderings for active neutrinos, in particular charged-lepton flavor violating decays μ → eγ, μ → eee, and the electron-muon conversion processes get sizable rates within future sensitivity reach.