Abstract
We studied the feasibility of an experiment searching for sub-millicharged particles (χs) using 30 GeV proton fixed-target collisions at J-PARC. The detector is composed of two layers of stacked scintillator bars and PMTs and is proposed to be installed 280 m from the target. The main background is a random coincidence between two layers due to dark counts in PMTs, which can be reduced to a negligible level using the timing of the proton beam. With NPOT = 1022 which corresponds to running the experiment for three years, the experiment provides sensitivity to χs with the charge down to 5 × 10−5 in mχ < 0.2 GeV/c2 and 8 × 10−4 in mχ < 1.6 GeV/c2. This is the regime largely uncovered by previous experiments. We also explored a few detector designs to achieve optimal sensitivity to χs. The photoelectron yield is the main driver, but the sensitivity does not have a strong dependence on detector configuration in the sub-millicharge regime.
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Kim, J.H., Hwang, I.S. & Yoo, J.H. Search for sub-millicharged particles at J-PARC. J. High Energ. Phys. 2021, 31 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2021)031
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2021)031