Hunting muonic forces at emulsion detectors
A. Ariga, Reuven Balkin, Iftah Galon, E. Kajomovitz, Yotam Soreq
Abstract
Only two types of Standard Model particles are able to propagate the 480meters separating the ATLAS interaction point and FASER: neutrinos and muons. Furthermore, muons are copiously produced in proton collisions. We propose to use <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mi>FASER</a:mi><a:mi>ν</a:mi></a:math> as a muon fixed target experiment in order to search for new bosonic degrees of freedom coupled predominantly to muons. These muon force carriers are particularly interesting in light of the recent measurement of the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Using a novel analysis technique, we show that even in the current LHC run, <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>FASER</c:mi><c:mi>ν</c:mi></c:math> could potentially probe previously unexplored parts of the parameter space. In the high-luminosity phase of the LHC, we find that the improved sensitivity of <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mrow><e:mi>FASER</e:mi><e:mi>ν</e:mi><e:mn>2</e:mn></e:mrow></e:math> will probe unexplored parameter space and may be competitive with dedicated search proposals. Published by the American Physical Society 2024