The DarkLight Experiment: A Precision Search for New Physics at Low Energies

Abstract

We describe the current status of the DarkLight experiment at Jefferson Laboratory. DarkLight is motivated by the possibility that a dark photon in the mass range 10 to 100 MeV/c${}^2$ could couple the dark sector to the Standard Model. DarkLight will precisely measure electron proton scattering using the 100 MeV electron beam of intensity 5 mA at the Jefferson Laboratory energy recovering linac incident on a windowless gas target of molecular hydrogen. The complete final state including scattered electron, recoil proton, and e+e- pair will be detected. A phase-I experiment has been funded and is expected to take data in the next eighteen months. The complete phase-II experiment is under final design and could run within two years after phase-I is completed. The DarkLight experiment drives development of new technology for beam, target, and detector and provides a new means to carry out electron scattering experiments at low momentum transfers.

Whitepaper submitted to Town Meeting on Fundamental and Symmetries and Neutrinos, O'Hare airport, Chicago, IL

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Feebly-Interacting Particles:FIPs 2020 Workshop Report
• Particle Physics Models for the 17 MeV Anomaly in Beryllium Nuclear Decays
• The Search for Feebly-Interacting Particles
• Impact of Resonance on Thermal Targets for Invisible Dark Photon Searches
• Leptonic Scalars at the LHC
• Search for dark sector physics with NA64
• Xenon1T excess from electron recoils of non-relativistic Dark Matter
• Dark Photons from Nuclear Transitions
• A Direct Detection Search for Hidden Sector New Particles in the 3-60 MeV Mass Range