Probing a dark photon using rare leptonic kaon and pion decays

Abstract

Rare leptonic kaon and pion decays $K^{+}({\pi }^{+})\to {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }{e}^{+}{e}^{-}$ can be used to probe a dark photon of mass $\mathcal{O}(10)$~MeV, with the background coming from the mediation of a virtual photon. This is most relevant for the 16.7-MeV dark photon proposed to explain a 6.8$\sigma$ anomaly recently observed in ${}^8$Be transitions by the Atomki Collaboration. We evaluate the reach of future experiments for different scenarios of how the dark photon couples with the standard model particles, and show that a great portion of the preferred 16.7-MeV dark photon parameter space can be decisively probed. We also show the use of angular distributions to further distinguish the signal from the background.

arXiv comment17 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (29)

• The Physics of Heavy Z' Gauge Bosons
• Secluded U(1) below the weak scale
• New Fixed-Target Experiments to Search for Dark Gauge Forces
• The Phenomenology of Extra Neutral Gauge Bosons
• Observation of Anomalous Internal Pair Creation in ${}^8$Be: A Possible Signature of a Light, Neutral Boson
• U-boson production in e+e- annihilations, psi and Upsilon decays, and Light Dark Matter
• Search for a new gauge boson in the $A^{\prime }$ Experiment (APEX)
• New Limits on Hidden Photons from Past Electron Beam Dumps
• Probing a Secluded U(1) at B-factories
• New Exclusion Limits on Dark Gauge Forces from Proton Bremsstrahlung in Beam-Dump Data
• Probing Dark Forces and Light Hidden Sectors at Low-Energy e+e- Colliders
• Measurement of Neutrino-Electron Scattering Cross-Section with a CsI(Tl) Scintillating Crystal Array at the Kuo-Sheng Nuclear Power Reactor
• New Exclusion Limits for Dark Gauge Forces from Beam-Dump Data
• Protophobic Fifth Force Interpretation of the Observed Anomaly in ${}^8$Be Nuclear Transitions
• Constraints on sub-GeV hidden sector gauge bosons from a search for heavy neutrino decays
• Search for Light Gauge Bosons of the Dark Sector at the Mainz Microtron
• Dark Side of Higgs Diphoton Decays and Muon g-2
• Constraints on Hidden Photon Models from Electron g-2 and Hydrogen Spectroscopy
• Probing MeV Dark Matter at Low--Energy $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ Colliders
• Search for high-mass new phenomena in the dilepton final state using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Stringent limits on the π^0 -> γX, X -> e+e- decay from neutrino experiments and constraints on new light gauge bosons
• New Precise Measurement of the Pion Weak Form Factors in the Pi+ -> e+ nu gamma Decay
• Precise Measurement of the Pion Axial Form Factor in the Pi+ -> e+ nu gamma Decay
• Experimental Study of the Radiative Decays K+ -> mu+ nu e+e- and K+ -> e+ nu e+e-
• Constraints to new physics models for the proton charge radius puzzle from the decay $K^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}+\nu +e^{-}+e^{+}$
• Constraints on the Dark Photon Parameter Space from Leptonic Rare Kaon Decays
• Restrained Dark $U(1{)}_d$ at Low Energies
• X(16.7) Production in Electron-Position Collision
• Light gauge boson in rare $K$ decay

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Search for a Hypothetical 16.7 MeV Gauge Boson and Dark Photons in the NA64 Experiment at CERN
• Improved limits on a hypothetical X(16.7) boson and a dark photon decaying into $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pairs
• The High-Energy Frontier of the Intensity Frontier: Closing the Dark Photon, Inelastic Dark Matter, and Muon g-2 Windows
• Neutrino Masses and Absence of Flavor Changing Interactions in the 2HDM from Gauge Principles
• Explanation of the 17 MeV Atomki Anomaly in a $U(1{)}^{\prime }$-Extended 2-Higgs Doublet Model
• QED Meson Description of the X17 and Other Anomalous Particles
• Atomki Anomaly in Family-Dependent $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ Extension of the Standard Model
• Implication of the hidden sub-GeV bosons for the $(g-2{)}_{\mu }$, ${}^8$Be-${}^4$He anomaly, proton charge radius, EDM of fermions and dark axion portal
• New Physics Suggested by Atomki Anomaly
• Hunting down massless dark photons in kaon physics
• Search for dark sector physics with NA64
• Is There a Sign of New Physics in Beryllium Transitions?
• A toy model of hyperboloidal approach to quasinormal modes
• Search for muon-philic new light gauge boson at Belle II
• 17 MeV Atomki anomaly from short-distance structure of spacetime
• Neutrino Constraints and the ATOMKI X17 Anomaly
• Searching for dark photons in hyperon decays
• Search for a massless dark photon in ${\Lambda }_c^{+}\to p{\gamma }^{\prime }$ decay
• Seeking massless dark photons in the decays of charmed hadrons
• Kaon decays shedding light on massless dark photons
• Search for the massless dark photon with $D^0\to \omega {\gamma }^{\prime }$ and $D^0\to \gamma {\gamma }^{\prime }$
• A scale at 10 MeV, gravitational topological vacuum, and large extra dimensions
• Dark photon manifestation in the triplet-like QED processes $\gamma +{\ell }_i\to {\ell }_j^{+}{\ell }_j^{-}+{\ell }_i$, $i\ne j,$ $i=e,\mu ,$ $j=e,\mu ,\tau$