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Speaker: Tyler Horoho (U. of Virginia) – Title: Searching for sub-GeV Dark Matter with the NOvA Near Detector and Measuring the Performance of the Mu2e Cosmic Ray Veto
December 10 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Research Progress Meeting
Date: December 10, 2024
Time: 4:00- 5:00 pm
Location: Sessler Conference Room- 50A-5132 [In-Person and HYBRID]
Speaker: Tyler Horoho (U. of Virginia)
Title: Searching for sub-GeV Dark Matter with the NOvA Near Detector and Measuring the Performance of the Mu2e Cosmic Ray Veto
Abstract: The constituents of dark matter are still unknown, and the viable possibilities span a very large mass range. Specific scenarios for the origin of dark matter sharpen the focus to within about an MeV to 100 TeV. Most of the stable constituents of known matter have masses in this lower range, and a thermal origin for dark matter works in a simple and predictive manner. If there is a non-gravitational interaction between dark matter and ordinary matter, as there must be in the case of a thermal origin, then there is necessarily a production mechanism in accelerator-based experiments. NOvA is a high luminosity long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab that is capable of searching for signatures of dark matter re-scattering with electrons in its near detector after production in the NuMI target. In this talk, I present an analysis to search for an excess of single electron events in the NOvA near detector consistent with the presence of dark matter-electron scattering and show the expected sensitivity of NOvA to sub-GeV dark matter. I will also discuss a future search for sub-GeV dark matter with the Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX), a planned electron-beam fixed-target missing-momentum search for dark matter at SLAC.
The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for charged-lepton flavor violation through the neutrino-less conversion of a muon to an electron in the presence of a nucleus, a sensitive probe for new physics. Mu2e aims to have single-event sensitivity four orders of magnitude beyond current experimental limits. This sensitivity will require less than one expected background event, which will only be possible with sufficient background vetoing. The largest source of background comes from cosmic-rays, which can produce electrons indistinguishable from a conversion electron signature. To mitigate this, Mu2e will use a cosmic ray veto (CRV), which must exceed a veto efficiency of 99.99% to meet Mu2e’s sensitivity goals. I will present performance studies on the CRV detector components.
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