Speaker
Description
Massive photon-like particles are predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model as possible portals toward a hidden sector where Dark Matter is secluded [1]. They are vector bosons mediating the interaction between ordinary and dark matter and can be produced in different processes through a dim mixing to the photon.
The PADME experiment searches for a signal of a Dark Photon A’ in the e+e−→γA’ reaction in a positron-on-target experiment. For this purpose, it is analyzed the missing mass spectrum of final states with a single photon, produced in the annihilation of the positron beam of the DAΦNE Beam-Test Facility, at Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of INFN, on the electrons of a diamond target. In about one year of data taking, a sensitivity on the interaction strength (ε parameter) down to 0.001 is achievable in the mass region M(A’) <23.7 MeV.
Actually, the PADME approach allows to look for any new particle produced in e+e− collisions through a virtual off-shell photon such as long lived Axion-Like-Particles (ALPs), proto-phobic X bosons, Dark Higgs ...
In the talk, the scientific program of the experiment, and its current status will be illustrated.
References
[1] B. Holdom, Phys. Lett B 166, 196 (1986).
