Search for the Dark Photon and the Dark Higgs Boson at Belle

2015/02/28 by I. Jaeglé, The Belle Collaboration, I. Adachi +98 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Boson #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Dark photon #Higgs boson #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Photon #Physics #Quantum mechanics #hep-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.114.211801

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 211801 (2015)

arxiv created 2015/04/29 · openalex publication_date 2015/05/27 · arxiv updated 2015/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The dark photon A^\ensuremath' and the dark Higgs boson h^\ensuremath' are hypothetical constituents featured in a number of recently proposed dark sector models. Assuming prompt decays of both dark particles, we search for their production in the so-called Higgstrahlung channel e⁺e^\ensuremath-\ensuremath→A^\ensuremath'h^\ensuremath', with h^\ensuremath'\ensuremath→A^\ensuremath'A^\ensuremath'. We investigate ten exclusive final states with A^\ensuremath'\ensuremath→e⁺e^\ensuremath-, \ensuremathμ⁺\ensuremathμ^\ensuremath-, or \ensuremathπ⁺\ensuremathπ^\ensuremath- in the mass ranges 0.1 GeV/c² <m_A^\ensuremath'<\phantom\rule0ex0ex3.5 GeV/c² and 0.2 GeV/c² <m_h^\ensuremath'<10.5 GeV/c². We also investigate three inclusive final states 2(e⁺e^\ensuremath-)X, 2(\ensuremathμ⁺\ensuremathμ^\ensuremath-)X, and (e⁺e^\ensuremath-)(\ensuremathμ⁺\ensuremathμ^\ensuremath-)X, where X denotes a dark photon candidate detected via missing mass, in the mass ranges 1.1 GeV/c² <m_A^\ensuremath'<3.5 GeV/c² and 2.2 GeV/c² <m_h^\ensuremath'<10.5 GeV/c². Using the entire 977 fb^\ensuremath-1 data set collected by Belle, we observe no significant signal. We obtain individual and combined 90% credibility level upper limits on the branching fraction times the Born cross section, B\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi\ensuremathσ_Born, on the Born cross section \ensuremathσ_Born, and on the dark photon coupling to the dark Higgs boson times the kinetic mixing between the standard model photon and the dark photon, \ensuremathα_D\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi\ensuremathε². These limits improve upon and cover wider mass ranges than previous experiments. The limits from the final states 3(\ensuremathπ⁺\ensuremathπ^\ensuremath-) and 2(e⁺e^\ensuremath-)X are the first placed by any experiment. For \ensuremathα_D equal to 1/137, m_h^\ensuremath'< 8 GeV/c², and m_A^\ensuremath'<1 GeV/c², we exclude values of the mixing parameter \ensuremathε above \ensuremath∼8\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-4.

Citations

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