Thermal light dark matter (LDM) with particle masses in the 1 MeV–1 GeV range could successfully explain the observed dark matter abundance as a relic from the primordial Universe. In this picture, a new feeble interaction acts as a “portal” between the Standard Model and LDM particles, allowing for the exploration of this paradigm at accelerator experiments. In the last years, the “missing energy” experiment NA64e at CERN SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) has set world-leading constraints in the vector-mediated LDM parameter space, by exploiting a 100 GeV electron beam impinging on an electromagnetic calorimeter, acting as an active target. In this paper, we report a detailed description of the analysis of a preliminary measurement with a 70 GeV/c positron beam at NA64e, performed during summer 2023 with an accumulated statistics of 1.596 × 1010 positrons on target (hereafter referred to as e+OT). This data set was analyzed with the primary aim of evaluating the performance of the NA64e detector with a lower energy positron beam, towards the realization of the post-LS3 program. The analysis results, other than additionally probing unexplored regions in the LDM parameter space, provide valuable information towards the future NA64e positron campaign.

We present the first results from a proof-of-concept search for dark sectors via invisible decays of pseudoscalar η and η' mesons in the NA64h experiment at the CERN SPS. Our novel technique uses the charge-exchange reaction of 50 GeV π^- on nuclei of an active target as the source of neutral mesons. The η, η' → invisible events would exhibit themselves via a striking signature - the complete disappearance of the incoming beam energy in the detector. No evidence for such events has been found with 2.9×10^9 pions on target accumulated during one day of data taking. This allows us to set a stringent limit on the branching ratio Br(η' → invisible) < 2.1 × 10^-4 improving the current bound by a factor of ≃3. We also set a limit on Br(η→ invisible) < 1.1 × 10^-4 comparable with the existing one. These results demonstrate the great potential of our approach and provide clear guidance on how to enhance and extend the sensitivity for dark sector physics from future searches for invisible neutral meson decays.

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 $A^\prime$. For the first time, this search is performed with a positron beam by using the significantly enhanced production of $A^\prime$ in the resonant annihilation of positrons with atomic electrons of the target nuclei, followed by the invisible decay of $A^\prime$ into dark matter. No events were found in the signal region with $(10.1 \pm 0.1)~\times~10^{9}$ 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.

We report the first search for dark sectors performed at the NA64 experiment employing a high energy muon beam and a missing energy-momentum technique. Muons from the M2 beamline at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron with a momentum of 160 GeV/c are directed to an active target. The signal signature consists of a single scattered muon with momentum <80 GeV/c in the final state, accompanied by missing energy, i.e., no detectable activity in the downstream calorimeters. For a total dataset of (1.98±0.02)×1010 muons on target, no event is observed in the expected signal region. This allows us to set new limits on the remaining (mZ′,gZ′) parameter space of a new Z′ (Lμ−Lτ) vector boson which could explain the muon (g−2)μ anomaly. Additionally, our study excludes part of the parameter space suggested by the thermal dark matter relic abundance. Our results pave the way to explore dark sectors and light dark matter with muon beams in a unique and complementary way to other experiments. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Abstract The inclusion of an additional U(1) gauge Lμ − Lτ 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 μ and τ leptons and interacting with electrons via a loop mechanism. The Lμ − Lτ 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 ~ 9 × 1011 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 <$$ {m}_{Z^{\prime }} $$ m Z ′ ≲ 2 MeV range, in complementarity with the limits recently obtained by the NA64-μ experiment with a muon beam.

A search for dark sectors is performed using the unique M2 beam line at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. New particles (X) could be produced in the bremsstrahlung-like reaction of high-energy 160 GeV positively charged muons impinging on an active target, mu N -> mu NX, followed by their decays, X -> invisible. The experimental signature would be a scattered single muon from the target, with about less than half of its initial energy and no activity in the subdetectors located downstream from the interaction point. The full sample of the 2022 run is analyzed through the missing-energy/momentum channel, with total statistics of (1.98 +/- 0.02) x 10(10) muons on target. We demonstrate that various muonphilic scenarios involving different types of mediators, such as scalar or vector particles, can be probed simultaneously with such a technique. For the vector case, besides a L-mu - L-tau Z' vector boson, we also consider an invisibly decaying dark photon (A' -> invisible). This search is complementary to NA64 running with electrons and positrons, thus opening the possibility to expand the exploration of the thermal light dark matter parameter space by combining the results obtained with the three beams.

We present the first results from a proof-of-concept search for dark sectors via invisible decays of pseudoscalar eta and eta ' mesons in the NA64h experiment at the CERN SPS. Our novel technique uses the charge-exchange reaction of 50 GeV pi- on nuclei of an active target as the source of neutral mesons. The eta,eta'-> invisible events would exhibit themselves via a striking signature-the complete disappearance of the incoming beam energy in the detector. No evidence for such events has been found with 2.9x109 pions on target accumulated during one day of data taking. This allows us to set a stringent limit on the branching ratio Br(eta'-> invisible) < 2.1 x 10(-4) improving the current bound by a factor of similar or equal to 3. We also set a limit on Br(eta -> invisible) < 1.1 x 10(-4) comparable with the existing one. These results demonstrate the great potential of our approach and provide clear guidance on how to enhance and extend the sensitivity for dark sector physics from future searches for invisible neutral meson decays.

We report on a search for a new $Z'$ ($L_\mu-L_\tau$) vector boson performed at the NA64 experiment employing a high energy muon beam and a missing energy-momentum technique. Muons from the M2 beamline at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron with a momentum of 160 GeV/c are directed to an active target. A signal event is a single scattered muon with momentum $<$ 80 GeV/c in the final state, accompanied by missing energy, i.e. no detectable activity in the downstream calorimeters. For a total statistic of $(1.98\pm0.02)\times10^{10}$ muons on target, no event is observed in the expected signal region. This allows us to set new limits on part of the remaining $(m_{Z'},\ g_{Z'})$ parameter space which could provide an explanation for the muon $(g-2)_\mu$ anomaly. Additionally, our study excludes part of the parameter space suggested by the thermal Dark Matter relic abundance. Our results pave the way to explore Dark Sectors and light Dark Matter with muon beams in a unique and complementary way to other experiments.

In this study, we present the measurement of the intrinsic hadronic contamination at the CERN SPS H4 beamline configured to transport electrons and positrons at 100 GeV/c momentum. The analysis was performed using data collected by the NA64-$e$ experiment in 2022. Our study is based on calorimetric measurements, exploiting the different interaction mechanisms of electrons and hadrons in the NA64-ECAL and NA64-HCAL detectors. We determined the intrinsic hadronic contamination by comparing the results obtained using the nominal electron/positron beamline configuration with those obtained in a dedicated setup, in which only hadrons impinged on the detector. The significant differences in the experimental signatures of electrons and hadrons motivated our approach, resulting in a small and well-controlled systematic uncertainty for the measurement. Our study allowed us to precisely determine the intrinsic hadronic contamination, which represents a crucial parameter for the NA64 experiment in which the hadron contaminants may result in non-trivial backgrounds. Moreover, we performed dedicated Monte Carlo simulations for the hadron production induced by the primary T2 target. We found a good agreement between measurements and simulation results, confirming the validity of the applied methodology and our evaluation of the intrinsic hadronic contamination.

Thermal dark matter models with particle χ 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 χ 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 9.37×10^11 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'≲ 0.35 GeV, and to exclude scalar and Majorana dark matter with the χ-A' coupling α_D ≤ 0.1 for masses 0.001 ≲ m_χ≲ 0.1 GeV and 3m_χ≤ m_A'.

A search for a new $Z'$ gauge boson associated with (un)broken B-L symmetry in the keV-GeV mass range is carried out for the first time using the missing-energy technique in the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS. From the analysis of the data with 3.22e11 electrons on target collected during 2016-2021 runs no signal events were found. This allows to derive new constraints on the $Z'-e$ coupling strength, which for the mass range $0.3 < m_{Z'} < 100$ MeV are more stringent compared to those obtained from the neutrino-electron scattering data.

The extension of Standard Model made by inclusion of additional $U(1)$ gauge $L_\mu-L_\tau$ symmetry can explain the difference between the measured and the predicted value of the muon magnetic moment and solve the tension in $B$ meson decays. This model predicts the existence of a new, light $Z^\prime$ vector boson, predominantly coupled to second and third generation leptons, whose interaction with electrons is due to a loop mechanism involving muons and taus. In this work, we present a rigorous evaluation of the upper limits in the $Z^\prime$ parameter space, obtained from the analysis of the data collected by the NA64-$e$ experiment at CERN SPS, that performed a search for light dark matter with $2.84\times10^{11}$ electrons impinging with 100 GeV on an active thick target. The resulting limits, despite being included in a region already investigated by neutrino experiments,touch the muon $g-2$ preferred band for values of the $Z^\prime$ mass of order of 1 MeV. The sensitivity projections for the future high-statistics NA64-$e$ runs demonstrate the power of the electrons/positron beam approach in this theoretical scenario.

We report the results of a search for a new vector boson ( A ' ) decaying into two dark matter particles χ 1 χ 2 of different mass. The heavier χ 2 particle subsequently decays to χ 1 and an off-shell Dark Photon A ' ∗ → e + e - . For a sufficiently large mass splitting, this model can explain in terms of new physics the recently confirmed discrepancy observed in the muon anomalous magnetic moment at Fermilab. Remarkably, it also predicts the observed yield of thermal dark matter relic abundance. A detailed Monte-Carlo simulation was used to determine the signal yield and detection efficiency for this channel in the NA64 setup. The results were obtained re-analyzing the previous NA64 searches for an invisible decay A ' → χ χ ¯ and axion-like or pseudo-scalar particles a → γ γ . With this method, we exclude a significant portion of the parameter space justifying the muon g-2 anomaly and being compatible with the observed dark matter relic density for A ' masses from 2 m e up to 390 MeV and mixing parameter ε between 3 × 10 - 5 and 2 × 10 - 2 .

We performed a search for a new generic X boson, which could be a scalar (S), pseudoscalar (P), vector (V), or an axial vector (A) particle produced in the 100 GeV electron scattering off nuclei, e^{-}Z→e^{-}ZX, followed by its invisible decay in the NA64 experiment at CERN. No evidence for such a process was found in the full NA64 dataset of 2.84×10^{11} electrons on target. We place new bounds on the S, P, V, A coupling strengths to electrons, and set constraints on their contributions to the electron anomalous magnetic moment a_{e}, |Δa_{X}|≲10^{-15}-10^{-13} for the X mass region 1  MeV≲m_{X}≲1  GeV. These results are an order of magnitude more sensitive compared to the current accuracy on a_{e} from the electron g-2 experiments and recent high-precision determination of the fine structure constant.

The current most stringent constraints for the existence of sub-GeV dark matter coupling to Standard Model via a massive vector boson A 0 were set by the NA64 experiment for the mass region m A 0 ≲ 250 MeV, by analyzing data from the interaction of 2 . 84 × 10 11 100-GeV electrons with an active thick target and searching for missing-energy events. In this work, by including A 0 production via secondary positron annihilation with atomic electrons, we extend these limits in the 200 – 300 MeV region by almost an order of magnitude, touching for the first time the dark matter relic density constrained parameter combinations. Our new results demonstrate the power of the resonant annihilation process in missing energy dark-matter searches, paving the road to future dedicated e þ beam efforts.

Yu. M. Andreev, D. Banerjee, J. Bernhard, V. E. Burtsev, N. Charitonidis, A. G. Chumakov, 14 D. Cooke, P. Crivelli, E. Depero, A. V. Dermenev, S. V. Donskov, R. R. Dusaev, T. Enik, A. Feshchenko, V. N. Frolov, A. Gardikiotis, S. G. Gerassimov, 8 S. N. Gninenko, M. Hösgen, M. Jeckel, V. A. Kachanov, A. E. Karneyeu, G. Kekelidze, B. Ketzer, D. V. Kirpichnikov, M. M. Kirsanov, V. N. Kolosov, I. V. Konorov, 8 S. G. Kovalenko, V. A. Kramarenko, 9 L. V. Kravchuk, N. V. Krasnikov, 7 S. V. Kuleshov, V. E. Lyubovitskij, 14, 15 V. Lysan, V. A. Matveev, Yu. V. Mikhailov, L. Molina Bueno, 17 D. V. Peshekhonov, V. A. Polyakov, B. Radics, R. Rojas, A. Rubbia, V. D. Samoylenko, H. Sieber, D. Shchukin, V. O. Tikhomirov, I. Tlisova, A. N. Toropin, A. Yu. Trifonov, 14 B. I. Vasilishin, G. Vasquez Arenas, P. V. Volkov, 9 V. Yu. Volkov, and P. Ulloa

We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar (s) and pseudoscalar axionlike (a) particles that couple to two photons by using the high-energy CERN SPS H4 electron beam. The new particles, if they exist, could be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of hard bremsstrahlung photons generated by 100 GeV electrons in the NA64 active dump with virtual photons provided by the nuclei of the dump. The a(s) would penetrate the downstream HCAL module, serving as a shield, and would be observed either through their a(s)→γγ decay in the rest of the HCAL detector, or as events with a large missing energy if the a(s) decays downstream of the HCAL. This method allows for the probing of the a(s) parameter space, including those from generic axion models, inaccessible to previous experiments. No evidence of such processes has been found from the analysis of the data corresponding to 2.84×10^{11} electrons on target, allowing us to set new limits on the a(s)γγ-coupling strength for a(s) masses below 55 MeV.

The improved results on a direct search for a new X(16.7 MeV) boson which could explain the anomalous excess of $e^+e^-$ pairs observed in the excited 8Be nucleus decays ("Berillium anomaly") are reported. Due to its coupling to electrons, the X boson could be produced in the bremsstrahlung reaction e-Z -> e-ZX by a high-energy beam of electrons incident on active target in the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS and observed through its subsequent decay into $e^+e^-$ pair. No evidence for such decays was found from the combined analysis of the data samples with total statistics corresponding to 8.4\times 10^{10} electrons on target collected in 2017 and 2018. This allows to set the new limits on the $X$--$e^-$ coupling in the range 1.2 \times 10^{-4} < \epsilon_e < 6.8 \times 10^{-4}, excluding part of the parameter space favored by the Berillium anomaly. We also set new bounds on the mixing strength of photons with dark photons (A') from non-observation of the decay $A' \to e^+e^-$ of the bremsstrahlung A' with a mass below 24 MeV.

Recently, the ATOMKI experiment has reported new evidence for the excess of e+e- events with a mass ∼ 17 MeV in the nuclear transitions of 4 He, that they previously observed in measurements with 8 Be. These observations could be explained by the existence of a new vector X17 boson. So far, the search for the decay X17→e+e- with the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS gave negative results. Here, we present a new technique that could be implemented in NA64 aiming to improve the sensitivity and to cover the remaining X17 parameter space. If a signal-like event is detected, an unambiguous observation is achieved by reconstructing the invariant mass of the X17 decay with the proposed method. To reach this goal an optimization of the X17 production target, as well as an efficient and accurate reconstruction of two close decay tracks, is required. A dedicated analysis of the available experimental data making use of the trackers information is presented. This method provides independent confirmation of the NA64 published results [1], validating the tracking procedure. The detailed Monte Carlo study of the proposed setup and the background estimate show that the goal of the proposed search is feasible.

A search for sub-GeV dark matter production mediated by a new vector boson A^{'}, called a dark photon, is performed by the NA64 experiment in missing energy events from 100 GeV electron interactions in an active beam dump at the CERN SPS. From the analysis of the data collected in the years 2016, 2017, and 2018 with 2.84×10^{11} electrons on target no evidence of such a process has been found. The most stringent constraints on the A^{'} mixing strength with photons and the parameter space for the scalar and fermionic dark matter in the mass range ≲0.2  GeV are derived, thus demonstrating the power of the active beam dump approach for the dark matter search.