Speaker
Description
We study the sensitivity of the FORMOSA experiment at the LHC Forward Physics Facility to millicharged particles (mCPs), focusing on a previously unexplored production mechanism associated with the forward neutron flux. Existing studies mainly consider mCP production from forward mesons directly produced in pp collisions.
We point out that pp collisions also generate an intense flux of highly forward, TeV-scale neutrons, which are absorbed by materials located hundreds of meters downstream of the interaction point. These neutron-induced beam-dump interactions initiate hadronic showers, producing secondary mesons such as neutral pions that can subsequently decay into mCPs.
We model this neutron-induced meson shower and evaluate its contribution to the mCP flux reaching FORMOSA. We find that this secondary production channel enhances the total mCP flux by up to about 60%, significantly improving FORMOSA’s sensitivity. Our results highlight the importance of beam-dump–like effects from forward neutral hadrons in assessing the discovery potential of forward experiments at the LHC.