Eur. Phys. J. A (2021) 57: 253
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00524-6

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Light dark matter searches with positrons

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Genova, 16146, Genoa, Italy
² Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, 23606, Newport News, VA, USA
³ Università degli Studi di Brescia, 25123, Brescia, Italy
⁴ INFN, Sezione di Pavia, 27100, Pavia, Italy
⁵ Università degli Studi di Genova, 16146, Genoa, Italy
⁶ Lamar University, PO Box 10046, 4400 MLK Blvd, 77710, Beaumont, TX, USA
⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via E. Fermi 54, Frascati, Italy
⁸ INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy
⁹ Università di Roma Tor Vergata, 00133, Rome, Italy
¹⁰ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Catania, 95125, Catania, Italy
¹¹ Mississippi State University, 39762-5167, Mississippi State, MS, USA
¹² Faculty of physics, University of Sofia, 5 J. Bourchier Blvd, 1164, Sofia, Bulgaria
¹³ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 60510, Batavia, IL, USA
¹⁴ Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA
¹⁵ Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, 22100, Como, Italy
¹⁶ Sapienza Università di Roma, piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome, Italy
¹⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma, piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome, Italy
¹⁸ Canisius College, 14208, Buffalo, NY, USA

^u luca.marsicano@ge.infn.it
^y mauro.raggi@roma1.infn.it

Received: 29 March 2021
Accepted: 13 June 2021
Published online: 11 August 2021

Abstract

We discuss two complementary strategies to search for light dark matter (LDM) exploiting the positron beam possibly available in the future at Jefferson Laboratory. LDM is a new compelling hypothesis that identifies dark matter with new sub-GeV “hidden sector” states, neutral under standard model interactions and interacting with our world through a new force. Accelerator-based searches at the intensity frontier are uniquely suited to explore it. Thanks to the high intensity and the high energy of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) beam, and relying on a novel LDM production mechanism via positron annihilation on target atomic electrons, the proposed strategies will allow us to explore new regions in the LDM parameters space, thoroughly probing the LDM hypothesis as well as more general hidden sector scenarios.