Description:

The NuMI facility at Fermilab produces a high-intensity beam of muon neutrinos and antineutrinos, designed to study neutrino oscillations. This beam may also be a source of dark matter particles produced through a light mediator. This talk details a search for dark matter particles with masses between 1 and 200 MeV that interact with Standard Model particles via the vector portal, producing forward-scattered single-electron events in the NOvA near detector. We set limits on the dark--visible coupling based on an exposure of $2.55\times10^{21}$ protons of 120 GeV energy on the NuMI target. For the dark matter mass range 10--20 MeV this analysis sets the tightest constraints on the coupling to date.

Tyler Horoho, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Michigan

Host: Susan Dittmer