An Improved Limit on Invisible Decays of Positronium

Abstract

The results of a new search for positronium decays into invisible final states are reported. Convincing detection of this decay mode would be a strong evid ence for new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM): for example the existence of extra--dimensions, of milli-charged particles, of new light gauge bosons or of mirror particles. Mirror matter could be a relevant dark matter candidate. In this paper the setup and the results of a new experiment are presented. In a collected sample of about $(6.31\pm 0.28)\times 10^6$ orthopositronium decay s, no evidence for invisible decays in an energy window [0,80] keV was found and an upper limit on the branching ratio of orthopositronium \invdecay could be set: $\binvdecay<4.2\times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) Our results provide a limit on the photon mirror-photon mixing strength $\epsilon \le 1.55\times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) and rule out particles lighter than the electron mass with a fraction $Q_x\le 3.4\times 10^{-5}$ of the electron charge. Furthermore, upper limits on the branching ratios for the decay of parapositronium $Br(p-Ps\to invisible)\le 4.3\times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) and the direct annihilation $Br(e^{+}{e}^{-}\to invisible)\le 2.1\times 10^{-8}$ (90% C.L.) could be set.

17 pages, 7 figures, added references, fixed limit on millicharged particles and changed two plots accordingly

References in corpus (12)

• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (in "The Review of Particle Properties" 2004)
• Mirror matter-type dark matter
• Mirror World and its Cosmological Consequences
• Brane world: disappearing massive matter
• Old and new physics interpretations of the NuTeV anomaly
• Precision Study of Positronium: Testing Bound State QED Theory
• Can the mirror world explain the ortho-positronium lifetime puzzle?
• alpha^2 corrections to parapositronium decay
• Extra dimensions and invisible decay of orthopositronium
• Neutrino Decay of Positronium in the Standard Model and Beyond
• Search for an exotic three-body decay of orthopositronium
• Solution of Orthopositronium lifetime Puzzle

Cited by in corpus (98)

• The Low-Energy Frontier of Particle Physics
• New ALPS Results on Hidden-Sector Lightweights
• The Stueckelberg $Z^{\prime }$ Extension with Kinetic Mixing and Milli-Charged Dark Matter From the Hidden Sector
• The Dark Photon
• Naturally Light Hidden Photons in LARGE Volume String Compactifications
• Mirror dark matter: Cosmology, galaxy structure and direct detection
• Dark Radiation constraints on minicharged particles in models with a hidden photon
• Search for Millicharged Particles Using Optically Levitated Microspheres
• Laser experiments explore the hidden sector
• Reviving Millicharged Dark Matter for 21-cm Cosmology
• Illuminating the Hidden Sector of String Theory by Shining Light through a Magnetic Field
• The Search for Feebly-Interacting Particles
• Constraints on millicharged particles from Planck
• Looking for milli-charged particles with a new experiment at the LHC
• Interactions of Unparticles with Standard Model Particles
• Bounds on Unparticles Couplings to Electrons: from Electron g-2 to Positronium Decays
• Measurement of the ortho-positronium confinement energy in mesoporous thin films
• A direct experimental limit on neutron -- mirror neutron oscillations
• Probing Hidden Sector Photons through the Higgs Window
• Exploring the robustness of stellar cooling constraints on light particles
• Search for millicharged particles in reactor neutrino experiments: a probe of the PVLAS anomaly
• DAMA annual modulation effect and asymmetric mirror matter
• Cosmology with Mirror Dark Matter
• Spontaneous Mirror Parity Violation, Common Origin of Matter and Dark Matter, and the LHC Signatures
• Search for millicharged particles in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV
• Short Baseline Neutrino Oscillations and a New Light Gauge Boson
• Magnetic Mixing -- Electric Minicharges from Magnetic Monopoles
• DAMA annual modulation and mirror Dark Matter
• Phenomenology of 10^32 Dark Sectors
• Search for CP-violation in Positronium Decay
• Minicharges and Magnetic Monopoles
• New experimental limits on neutron - mirror neutron oscillations in the presence of mirror magnetic field
• First Limit on the Direct Detection of Lightly Ionizing Particles for Electric Charge as Low as $e$/1000 with the \textsc{Majorana Demonstrator}
• Sensitivity to millicharged particles in future proton-proton collisions at the LHC
• Probing millicharged particles with NA64 experiment at CERN
• Minicharged Particles from the Sun: A Cutting-Edge Bound
• Constraints on millicharged particles with low threshold germanium detectors at Kuo-Sheng Reactor Neutrino Laboratory
• Galactic structure explained with dissipative mirror dark matter
• Search for invisible decays of ${\pi }^0,\eta ,{\eta }^{\prime },K_S$ and $K_L$: A probe of new physics and tests using the Bell-Steinberger relation
• Comprehensive asymmetric dark matter model
• A Milli-Window to Another World
• Positronium in MOFs: the Atom out of the box
• On search for eV hidden sector photons in Super-Kamiokande and CAST experiments
• Mirror dark matter interpretations of the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II data
• QED and Fundamental Symmetries in Positronium Decays
• Late time CMB anisotropies constrain mini-charged particles
• Probing Minicharged Particles with Tests of Coulomb's Law
• Notes on Hidden Mirror World
• Positronium Portal into Hidden Sector: A new Experiment to Search for Mirror Dark Matter
• Dark matter and generation of galactic magnetic fields
• Invisible $K_L$ decays as a probe of new physics
• Mirror dark matter cosmology - predictions for $N_{eff}[CMB]$ and $N_{eff}[BBN]$
• The Lamb shift contribution of very light millicharged particles
• Searching for Elusive Dark Sectors with Terrestrial and Celestial Observations
• Experimental limits on neutron disappearance into another braneworld
• New bounds from positronium decays on massless mirror dark photons
• BBN with light dark matter
• Positronium oscillations to Mirror World revisited
• Anomaly induced effects in a magnetic field
• External Fields as a Probe for Fundamental Physics
• Tunneling of the 3rd kind
• Orthopositronium lifetime at O(alpha) and O(alpha^3 ln(alpha)) in closed form
• Implementing Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Electroweak Baryogenesis in a Mirror Two-Higgs-Doublet Model
• Extra dimensions, orthopositronium decay, and stellar cooling
• The LSND/MiniBooNe excess events and heavy neutrino from muon and kaon decays
• Commissioning of the J-PET detector in view of the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy
• First search for invisible decays of ortho-positronium confined in a vacuum cavity
• Dissipative dark matter halos: The steady state solution
• Invisible decay of muonium: Tests of the standard model and searches for new physics
• Anomalous Ionization in the Central Molecular Zone by sub-GeV Dark Matter
• H\to hh in the Mirror Model at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Two-component millicharged dark matter and the EDGES 21cm signal
• Constraints on Lightly Ionizing Particles from CDMSlite
• Positronium Decay into a Photon and Neutrinos
• Dissipative dark matter halos: The steady state solution II
• A Snowmass Whitepaper: Dark Matter Production at Intensity-Frontier Experiments
• Relativistic Impulse Approximation in the Atomic Ionization Process induced by Millicharged Particles
• A search for neutron to mirror neutron oscillation using neutron electric dipole moment measurements
• Limit on the electric charge-nonconserving ${\mu }^{+}\to invisible$ decay
• Positronium Decays with Dark $Z$ and Fermionic Dark Matter
• Invisible $Z\prime$ as a probe of extra dimensions at the CERN LHC
• Search for millicharged particles in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV
• Relic abundance of MeV millicharged particles
• Consequences of Gravity-Induced Couplings in Theories with Many Particle Species
• Constraints on millicharged particles by neutron stars
• Underground Production of Electromagnetic Dark States by MeV-scale Electron Beams and Detection with CCDs
• Production and study of antideuterium with the GBAR beamline
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Long-time soliton dynamics via a coarse-grained space-time method
• Letter of Intent: The Forward Physics Facility
• Bounds on ortho-positronium and $J/\psi$-${\rm Y}$ quarkonia invisible decays and constraints on hidden braneworlds in a $SO(3,1)$-broken 5D bulk
• Dimming Starlight with Dark Compact Objects
• Search for mirror hidden sector with neutral kaons at NA64
• Annihilation energy and decay time of an ortho-Positronium
• Dark photon searches via Higgs boson production at the LHC and beyond
• Constraints on the velocity dispersion of Dark Matter from Cosmology and new bounds on scattering from the Cosmic Dawn
• Strong fields and recycled accelerator parts as a laboratory for fundamental physics
• A Tale of Two $U(1)$'s: Kinetic Mixing from Lattice WGC States