Nuclear Physics Seminars

Recent theories of dark matter predict A’ gauge bosons in the mass range of 0.01-10 GeV that couple to charged fermions with a strength of α’/α_ΕΜ~ 10^-4 of the photon or less. The DarkLight (Detecting A Resonance Kinematically with eLectrons Incident on a Gaseous Hydrogen Target) experiment intends to use the 1 MW 100 MeV electron beam at the Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser incident on a 10¹⁹ H₂/cm² thick target to study the process e^- + p -> e^- + p +e^- + e⁺. A dark force particle would show up as a narrow resonance in the radiated e⁺ - e^- system. DarkLight would explore the A’ mass region 10-100 MeV with sensitivity to couplings as low as a’/a_EM ~10^-7 with 1/ab of data.