High Energy Physics Seminar

Accelerator-based experiments provide a unique opportunity to expand the search for dark sector and rare signatures in the MeV to GeV range. This largely unexplored regime is well motivated when assuming a simple and predictive thermal origin for dark matter, or extensions of QCD that predict heavy axion-like particles. Accelerator experiments can produce these dark sector candidates in different ways, for example, by scattering a high-intensity beam on a fixed target or by exploiting "low-energy" collider events. In this talk, I will review the landscape of these searches and identify two distinct and urgent opportunities for the US to take the lead in the search for sub-GeV dark sector particles: the LDMX experiment, a electron beam setup at SLAC, and the DarkQuest experiment, a proton beam setup at Fermilab. I will discuss the capabilities and plans of these experiments, paying particular attention to the technology and beam-lines that make these experiments possible. Finally, I will explain how current and future efforts fit within the global hunt for low mass new physics.

The talk is in 469 Lauritsen.

Contact theoryinfo@caltech.edu for Zoom link.