Dark sectors searches with the NA64 experiment at CERN

Noviembre 21, 2022
De 3:00pm hasta 4:00pm

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Theoretical Physics, general interest
Speaker: 
Laura Molina Bueno
Institution: 
Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC-UV/CSIC, Valencia)
Location&Place: 

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Abstract: 

The existence of dark sectors (DS) is an exciting possibility to explain the origin of Dark Matter (DM). In addition to gravity, DM could interact with ordinary matter through a new very weak force. This new interaction could be mediated by a new massive vector boson, called dark photon (A’). If this new particle exists, it could be produced after the collision of a high energy electron or muon with a heavy nucleus. Then, it could decay to a pair of DM particles, leaving missing energy as experimental signature. These dark states can account for the DM relic density observed in the universe, establishing a connection between the cosmological observation and the predicted DM-SM interaction. As a result, one can define a well-motivated mass and coupling parameter space accessible by accelerator-based experiments. NA64 pioneered and is one of the world-leading experiments looking for DS at CERN. After 2022 run, the experiment will be able to probe for the first time the favoured parameter space suggested by the theoretical models. The latest results from the experiment and its future prospects will be covered. The potential of the experiment to probe as by-product many New Physics extensions such as ALPs or light Z’ as a solution to the muon g-2 anomaly will be also discussed. Finally, the new muon program, which had a pilot run in 2021 and 2022, will also be covered, together with the prospects using positron and hadron beams.