Hunting down the X17 boson at the CERN SPS.
Eur Phys J C Part Fields
; 80(12): 1159, 2020.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33343226
ABSTRACT
Recently, the ATOMKI experiment has reported new evidence for the excess of e + e - events with a mass â¼ 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 X 17 boson. So far, the search for the decay X 17 â 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 X 17 parameter space. If a signal-like event is detected, an unambiguous observation is achieved by reconstructing the invariant mass of the X 17 decay with the proposed method. To reach this goal an optimization of the X 17 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.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Eur Phys J C Part Fields
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Switzerland