NA64 Collaboration(Andreev, Y. M. et al), Molina Bueno, L., & Tuzi, M. (2024). First constraints on the Lμ – Lτ explanation of the muon g-2 anomaly from NA64-e at CERN. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 212–15pp.
Abstract: The inclusion of an additional U(1) gauge L-mu – L-tau symmetry would release the tension between the measured and the predicted value of the anomalous muon magnetic moment: this paradigm assumes the existence of a new, light Z ' vector boson, with dominant coupling to μand tau leptons and interacting with electrons via a loop mechanism. The L-mu – L-tau model can also explain the Dark Matter relic abundance, by assuming that the Z ' boson acts as a “portal” to a new Dark Sector of particles in Nature, not charged under known interactions. In this work we present the results of the Z ' search performed by the NA64-e experiment at CERN SPS, that collected similar to 9 x 10(11) 100 GeV electrons impinging on an active thick target. Despite the suppressed Z ' production yield with an electron beam, NA64-e provides the first accelerator-based results excluding the g – 2 preferred band of the Z ' parameter space in the 1 keV < m(Z ') less than or similar to 2 MeV range, in complementarity with the limits recently obtained by the NA64-mu experiment with a muon beam.
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DUNE Collaboration(Abud, A. A. et al), Amedo, P., Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Cervera-Villanueva, A., De Romeri, V., et al. (2023). Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU. J. Instrum., 18(4), P04034–35pp.
Abstract: The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 103 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype.
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NA64 Collaboration(Andreev, Y. M. et al), Molina Bueno, L., & Tuzi, M. (2024). Probing light dark matter with positron beams at NA64. Phys. Rev. D, 109(3), L031103–6pp.
Abstract: We present the results of a missing-energy search for light dark matter which has a new interaction with ordinary matter transmitted by a vector boson, called dark photon A'. For the first time, this search is performed with a positron beam by using the significantly enhanced production of A' in the resonant annihilation of positrons with atomic electrons of the target nuclei, followed by the invisible decay of A' into dark matter. No events were found in the signal region with (10.1 +/- 0.1) x 109 positrons on target with 100 GeV energy. This allowed us to set new exclusion limits that, relative to the collected statistics, prove the power of this experimental technique. This measurement is a crucial first step toward a future exploration program with positron beams, whose estimated sensitivity is here presented.
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DUNE Collaboration(Abud, A. A. et al), Amedo, P., Antonova, M., Barenboim, G., Benitez Montiel, C., Cervera-Villanueva, A., et al. (2023). Impact of cross-section uncertainties on supernova neutrino spectral parameter fitting in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Phys. Rev. D, 107(11), 112012–25pp.
Abstract: A primary goal of the upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is to measure the Oo10 thorn MeV neutrinos produced by a Galactic core-collapse supernova if one should occur during the lifetime of the experiment. The liquid-argon-based detectors planned for DUNE are expected to be uniquely sensitive to the & nu;e component of the supernova flux, enabling a wide variety of physics and astrophysics measurements. A key requirement for a correct interpretation of these measurements is a good understanding of the energy-dependent total cross section & sigma;oE & nu; thorn for charged-current & nu;e absorption on argon. In the context of a simulated extraction of supernova & nu;e spectral parameters from a toy analysis, we investigate the impact of & sigma;oE & nu; thorn modeling uncertainties on DUNE's supernova neutrino physics sensitivity for the first time. We find that the currently large theoretical uncertainties on & sigma;oE & nu; thorn must be substantially reduced before the & nu;e flux parameters can be extracted reliably; in the absence of external constraints, a measurement of the integrated neutrino luminosity with less than 10% bias with DUNE requires & sigma;oE & nu; thorn to be known to about 5%. The neutrino spectral shape parameters can be known to better than 10% for a 20% uncertainty on the cross-section scale, although they will be sensitive to uncertainties on the shape of & sigma;oE & nu; thorn . A direct measurement of low-energy & nu;e-argon scattering would be invaluable for improving the theoretical precision to the needed level.
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NA64 Collaboration(Andreev, Y. M. et al), Molina Bueno, L., & Tuzi, M. (2023). Search for Light Dark Matter with NA64 at CERN. Phys. Rev. Lett., 131(16), 161801–7pp.
Abstract: Thermal dark matter models with particle chi masses below the electroweak scale can provide an explanation for the observed relic dark matter density. This would imply the existence of a new feeble interaction between the dark and ordinary matter. We report on a new search for the sub-GeV chi production through the interaction mediated by a new vector boson, called the dark photon A ' , in collisions of 100 GeV electrons with the active target of the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS. With 9.37 x 10(11) electrons on target collected during 2016-2022 runs NA64 probes for the first time the well-motivated region of parameter space of benchmark thermal scalar and fermionic dark matter models. No evidence for dark matter production has been found. This allows us to set the most sensitive limits on the A ' couplings to photons for masses m(A ') less than or similar to 0.35 GeV, and to exclude scalar and Majorana dark matter with the chi – A ' coupling alpha(D) <= 0.1 for masses 0.001 less than or similar to m(chi) less than or similar to 0.1 GeV and 3m(chi) <= m(A ').
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