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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Long-lived vectors from electromagnetic cascades at SHiP

We simulate dark-vector, V, production from electromagnetic cascades at the recently approved SHiP experiment. The cascades (initiated by photons from π$^{0}$ → γγ) can lead to 3–4 orders of magnitude increase of the event rate relative to using primary production alone. We provide new SHiP sensitivity projections for dark photons and electrophilic gauge bosons, which are significantly improved compared to previous literature. The main gain in sensitivity occurs for long-lived dark vectors with masses below ~ 50 − 300 MeV. The dominant production mode in this parameter space is low-energy annihilation e$^{+}$e$^{−}$ → V (γ). This motivates a detailed study of backgrounds and efficiencies in the SHiP experiment for sub-GeV signals.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

First evaluation of meson and τ lepton spectra and search for heavy neutral leptons at ILC beam dump

A beam dump experiment can be seamlessly added to the proposed Inter- national Linear Collider (ILC) program because the high energy electron beam should be dumped after the collision point. The ILC beam dump experiment will provide an excellent opportunity to search for new long-lived particles. Since many of them can be produced by a rare decay of standard model particles, we evaluate spectra of the mesons and τ lepton at the decay based on the PHITS and PYTHIA8 simulations. As a motivated physics case, we study the projected sensitivity of heavy neutral leptons at the ILC beam dump experiment. The heavy neutral leptons can also be produced via deep inelastic scattering and Z boson decay at the ILC main detector, which we include in the projection. With the multi-track signal, the reach would be greatly extended in mass and coupling, even compared with the other proposed searches.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Search for light neutral particles decaying promptly into collimated pairs of electrons or muons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for a dark photon, a new light neutral particle, which decays promptly into collimated pairs of electrons or muons is presented. The search targets dark photons resulting from the exotic decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson, assuming its production via the dominant gluon-gluon fusion mode. The analysis is based on 140 fb -1 of data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Events with collimated pairs of electrons or muons are analysed and background contributions are estimated using data-driven techniques. No significant excess in the data above the Standard Model background is observed. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson decay into dark photons between 0.001% and 5%, depending on the assumed dark photon mass and signal model.

Aad, G. [Aix-Marseille Université] (ORCID:00000002↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dark photons and axion-like particles at the electron-ion collider in China

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 GeV ≲ m a ≲ 5 GeV, with a coupling reach of Λ ≲ 10 6 GeV, by combining the prompt-decay and displaced-vertex searches. The projected sensitivities to ALPs exceed the current bounds.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Searching for axion forces with spin precession in atoms and molecules

We propose to use atoms and molecules as quantum sensors of axion-mediated monopole-dipole forces. We show that electron spin precession experiments using atomic and molecular beams are well-suited for axion searches thanks to the presence of co-magnetometer states and single-shot temporal resolution. Experimental strategies to detect axion gradients from localised sources and the earth are presented, taking ACME III as a prototype example. Other possibilities including atomic beams, and laser-cooled atoms and molecules are discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Light Scalars at FASER

FASER, the ForwArd Search ExpeRiment, is a currently operating experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that can detect light long-lived particles produced in the forward region of the LHC interacting point. In this paper, we study the prospect of detecting light CP-even and CP-odd scalars at FASER and FASER 2. Considering a model-independent framework describing the most general interactions between a CP-even or CP-odd scalar and SM particles using the notation of coupling modifiers in the effective Lagrangian, we develop the general formalism for the scalar production and decay. We then analyze the FASER and FASER 2 reaches of light scalars in the large tan β region of the Type-I two Higgs double model as a case study, in which light scalars with relatively long lifetime could be accommodated. In the two benchmark scenarios we considered, the light (pseudo)scalar decay length varies in (10 –8 , 10 5 ) meters. Both FASER and FASER 2 can probe a large part of the parameter space in the large tan β region up to 10 7 , extending beyond the constraints of the other existing experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Direct deflection of Millicharged radiation

Millicharged particles are generic in theories of dark sectors. A cosmic or local abundance of them may be produced by the early universe, stellar environments, or the decay or annihilation of dark matter/dark energy. Furthermore, if such particles are light, these production channels result in a background of millicharged radiation. We show that light-shining-through-wall experiments employing superconducting RF cavities can also be used as “direct deflection” experiments to search for this relativistic background. The millicharged plasma is first subjected to an oscillating electromagnetic field of a driven cavity, which causes charge separation in the form of charge and current perturbations. In turn, these perturbations can propagate outwards and resonantly excite electromagnetic fields in a well-shielded cavity placed nearby, enabling detection. We estimate that future versions of the existing Dark SRF experiment can probe orders of magnitude of currently unexplored parameter space, including millicharges produced from the Sun, the cosmic neutrino background, or other mechanisms that generate a thermal abundance with energy density as small as ~ 10$^{−4}$ that of the cosmic microwave background.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum anomaly detection for collider physics

We explore the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) for anomaly detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In particular, we explore a semi-supervised approach in the four-lepton final state where simulations are reliable enough for a direct background prediction. This is a representative task where classification needs to be performed using small training datasets - a regime that has been suggested for a quantum advantage. We find that Classical Machine Learning (CML) benchmarks outperform standard QML algorithms and are able to automatically identify the presence of anomalous events injected into otherwise background-only datasets.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dark photon and dark Z mediated B meson decays

We study flavor changing neutral current decays of B and K mesons in the dark U(1) D model, with the dark photon/dark Z mass between 10 MeV and 2 GeV. Although the model provides an improved fit (compared to the standard model) to the differential decay distributions of B → K ($\ast$) ℓ + ℓ – , with ℓ = μ, e, and B s → $\phi$μ + μ – , the allowed parameter space is ruled out by measurements of atomic parity violation, K + → μ + + invisible decay, and ${B}_s-{\overline{B}}_s$ mixing, among others. To evade constraints from low energy data, we extend the model to allow for (1) additional invisible Z D decay, (2) a direct vector coupling of Z D to muons, and (3) a direct coupling of Z D to both muons and electrons, with the electron coupling fine-tuned to cancel the Z D coupling to electrons via mixing. We find that only the latter case survives all constraints.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Interactions of particles with “continuous spin” fields

Powerful general arguments allow only a few families of long-range interactions, exemplified by gauge field theories of electromagnetism and gravity. However, all of these arguments presuppose that massless fields have zero spin scale (Casimir invariant) and hence exactly boost invariant helicity. This misses the most general behavior compatible with Lorentz symmetry. We present a Lagrangian formalism describing interactions of matter particles with bosonic “continuous spin” fields with arbitrary spin scale ρ. Remarkably, physical observables are well approximated by familiar theories at frequencies larger than ρ, with calculable deviations at low frequencies and long distances. For example, we predict specific ρ-dependent modifications to the Lorentz force law and the Larmor formula, which lay the foundation for experimental tests of the photon’s spin scale. We also reproduce known soft radiation emission amplitudes for nonzero ρ. The particles’ effective matter currents are not fully localized to their worldlines when ρ ≠ 0, which motivates investigation of manifestly local completions of our theory. Our results also motivate the development of continuous spin analogues of gravity and non-Abelian gauge theories. Given the correspondence with familiar gauge theory in the small ρ limit, we conjecture that continuous spin particles may in fact mediate known long-range forces, with testable consequences.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dark fluxes from electromagnetic cascades

We study dark sector production in electromagnetic (EM) cascades. This problem requires accurate simulations of Standard Model (SM) and dark sector processes, both of which impact angular and energy distributions of emitted particles that ultimately determine flux predictions in a downstream detector. We describe the minimal set of QED processes which must be included to faithfully reproduce a SM cascade, and identify a universal algorithm to generate a dark sector flux given a Monte-Carlo simulation of a SM shower. We provide a new tool, "Image missing", which simulates EM cascades with associated dark vector production, and compare it against existing literature and “off the shelf” tools. The signal predictions at downstream detectors can strongly depend on the nontrivial interplay (and modelling) of SM and dark sector processes, in particular multiple Coulomb scattering and positron annihilation. We comment on potential impacts of these effects for realistic experimental setups.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Final state rescattering effects in axio-hadronic η and η′ decays

It has been long-understood that final state rescattering effects provide (1) corrections to hadronic meson decays rates, such as η → πππ and η' → ηππ. Hence, one would expect that such effects would be just as important in axio-hadronic η and η' decays, such as η(') → ππa, where a is an axion or axion-like particle (ALP). And indeed they are, as we show in this paper by using the treatment of dispersion relations to include the effects of strong final state interactions in several axio-hadronic processes, namely, η(') → π 0 π 0 a, η(') → π+π-a, and η' → ηπ 0 a. We also compute the perturbative, leading order decay rates for multiple ALP emission, such as in η(') → π 0 aa, η' → ηaa and η(') → aaa, and briefly discuss the expected corrections from strong interactions and the processes that must be considered for an accurate rate estimation of these multi-ALP decay channels.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Jupiter missions as probes of dark matter

Jupiter, the fascinating largest planet in the solar system, has been visited by nine spacecraft, which have collected a significant amount of data about Jovian properties. In this paper, we show that one type of the in situ measurements on the relativistic electron fluxes could be used to probe dark matter (DM) and dark mediator between the dark sector and our visible world. Jupiter, with its immense weight and cool core, could be an ideal capturer for DM with masses around the GeV scale. The captured DM particles could annihilate into long-lived dark mediators such as dark photons, which subsequently decay into electrons and positrons outside Jupiter. The charged particles, trapped by the Jovian magnetic field, have been measured in Jupiter missions such as the Galileo probe and the Juno orbiter. We use the data available to set upper bounds on the cross section of DM scattering off nucleons, σ χn , for dark mediators with lifetime of order $O$ (0.1–1) s. The results show that data from Jupiter missions already probe regions in the parameter space un- or under-explored by existing DM searches, e.g., constrain σχn of order (10 –41 –10 –39 ) cm 2 for 1 GeV DM dominantly annihilating into e + e – through dark mediators. This study serves as an example and an initial step to explore the full physics potential of the large planetary datasets from Jupiter missions. We also outline several other potential directions related to secondary products of electrons, positron signals and solar axions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dark matter raining on DUNE and other large volume detectors

Direct detection is a powerful means of searching for particle physics evidence of dark matter (DM) heavier than about a GeV with o(kiloton) volume, low-threshold detectors. In many scenarios, some fraction of the DM may be boosted to large velocities enhancing and generally modifying possible detection signatures. We investigate the scenario where 100% of the DM is boosted at the Earth due to new attractive long-range forces. This leads to two main improvements in detection capabilities: (1) the large boost allows for detectable signatures of DM well below a GeV at large-volume neutrino detectors, such as DUNE, Super-K, Hyper-K, and JUNO, as possible DM detectors, and (2) the flux at the Earth’s surface is enhanced by a focusing effect. In addition, the model leads to a significant anisotropy in the signal with the DM flowing dominantly vertically at the Earth’s surface instead of the typical approximately isotropic DM signal. We develop the theory behind this model and also calculate realistic constraints using a detailed GENIE simulation of the signal inside detectors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Forecasting dark showers at Belle II

Dark showers from strongly interacting dark sectors that confine at the GeV scale can give rise to novel signatures at e + e - colliders. In this work, we study the sensitivity of B factory experiments to dark showers produced through an effective interaction arising from a heavy off-shell mediator. We show that a prospective search for displaced vertices from GeV-scale long-lived particles at Belle II can improve the sensitivity to dark showers substantially compared to an existing search at BaBar. We compare the sensitivity of searches for displaced signals to searches for promptly produced resonances at BaBar and KLOE and calculate sensitivity projections for a single-photon search at Belle II to invisible dark showers produced through an effective interaction. The underlying structure of the effective interaction can be resolved at higher-energy experiments, where the mediator can be produced on-shell. To study the resulting constraints, we update electroweak precision bounds on kinetically mixed Z' bosons and reinterpret a search for low-mass di-muon resonances at LHCb in terms of dark showers. We find that LHCb and Belle II are most sensitive to different particle decay lengths, underscoring the complementarity of LHC and intensity frontier experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Searching for dark radiation at the LHC

In this work we explore the intriguing connections between searches for long-lived particles (LLPs) at the LHC and early universe cosmology. We study the non-thermal production of ultra-relativistic particles (i.e. dark radiation) in the early universe via the decay of weak-scale LLPs and show that the cosmologically interesting range ΔN eff ~ 0.01–0.1 corresponds to LLP decay lengths in the mm to cm range. These decay lengths lie at the boundary between prompt and displaced signatures at the LHC and can be comprehensively explored by combining searches for both. To illustrate this point, we consider a scenario where the LLP decays into a charged lepton and a (nearly) massless invisible particle. By reinterpreting searches for promptly decaying sleptons and for displaced leptons at both ATLAS and CMS we can then directly compare LHC exclusions with cosmological observables. We find that the CMB-S4 target value of ΔN eff = 0.06 is already excluded by current LHC searches and even smaller values can be probed for LLP masses at the electroweak scale.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Signals of millicharged dark matter in light-shining-through-wall experiments

We discuss a novel detection technique for millicharged dark matter that makes use of existing light-shining-through-wall (LSW) experiments searching for massive dark photons. Since millicharged particles interact with both the visible and dark sectors, a small background of such particles enables the search for visible signals even in the limit of a massless dark photon. Furthermore, for sufficiently large couplings, a small dark matter subcomponent consisting of millicharged particles can have a terrestrial abundance that is significantly enhanced with respect to its galactic abundance. We leverage this fact to show that in certain parts of parameter space, future runs of the LSW Dark SRF experiment can be used to set the strongest limits on millicharged relics.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Neutrinoless double beta decay rates in the presence of light sterile neutrinos

We investigate neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) in minimal extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics where gauge-singlet right-handed neutrinos give rise to Dirac and Majorana neutrino mass terms. We argue that the standard treatment of these scenarios, based on mass-dependent nuclear matrix elements, is missing important contributions to the 0νββ amplitude. First, new effects arise from the exchange of neutrinos with very small (ultrasoft) momenta, for which we compute the associated nuclear matrix elements for the decays of 76 Ge and 136 Xe. These contributions can dominate the 0νββ rate in cases with light sterile neutrinos. The ultrasoft terms are also relevant in the more standard scenario of just three light Majorana neutrinos where they lead to a 10% reduction of the total 0νββ amplitude. Secondly, we highlight the importance of short-range terms associated with medium-heavy sterile neutrinos and provide explicit formulae that can be used in phenomenological analyses. As examples we discuss impact of these new effects in several explicit scenarios, including a realistic 3 + 2 model with two right-handed gauge-singlet neutrinos.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗