Journal Article

Probing millicharged particles with NA64μ $$\\mu $$ and LDMX

Crivelli, P, Krasnikov, N. V, Lyubovitskij, Valery E, Voronchikhin, I. V, Kirpichnikov, D. V, Gninenko, Sergei N, Sieber, H, Zhevlakov, Alexey S, Kuleshov, Sergey, Bueno, L. Molina

2026

Overview

Millicharged particles emerge as compelling candidates in numerous theoretically well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. These hypothetical particles, characterized by an electric charge that is a small fraction of the elementary charge, have attracted significant attention in contemporary experimental physics. Their potential existence motivates dedicated search strategies across multiple experimental platforms, leveraging their distinctive electromagnetic interactions while evading conventional detection methods. In the present paper we estimated the projected sensitivity of fixed-target experiments, specifically NA64 μ and LDMX, to the parameter space of millicharged particles. For the NA64 μ experiment, with an anticipated muon flux of MOT≲1014 , our analysis reveals a detectable mass window of 10MeV≲mχ≲150MeV and charge parameter range 10-4≲ϵ≲7×10-4 . This sensitivity arises from the bremsstrahlung-like missing energy signature μN→μNγ∗(→χχ¯) . Furthermore, we evaluate the discovery potential of the LDMX facility, considering its projected electron beam statistics, EOT≲2×1016 , and energy, Ee≃8GeV . Our results demonstrate that LDMX can probe heavier MCPs in the mass range 250MeV≲mχ≲400MeV , with sensitivities reaching 10-3≲ϵ≲1.5×10-3 . This parametric window can be accessible through the distinctive invisible decay channel ρ→χχ¯ , where ρ -meson photo-production γN→Nρ plays a pivotal role.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V,SpringerOpen
• Subject: Approximation / Atoms & subatomic particles / Bremsstrahlung / Dark matter / Documents / Electromagnetic interactions / Electron beams / Energy / Experiments / Hypothetical particles / Parameter sensitivity / Particle physics / Quarks / Sensitivity / Standard model (particle physics)