Search for Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter with the ICARUS Detector at the Gran Sasso Underground National Laboratory
hep-ex
/ Authors
H. Carranza, J. Yu, B. Brown, S. Blanchard, S. Chakraborty, R. Raut, D. Kim, M. Antonello, B. Baibussinov, V. Bellini
and 50 more authors
P. Benetti, F. Boffelli, 6 M. Bonesini, A. Bubak, E. Calligarich, S. Centro, A. Cesana, K. Cieslik, A. G. Cocco, A. Dabrowska, A. Dermenev, A. Falcone, C. Farnese, A. Fava, A. Ferrari, D. Gibin, S. Gninenko, A. Guglielmi, J. Holeczek, M. Janik, M. Kirsanov, J. Kisiel, I. Kochanek, J. Lagoda
/ Abstract
We present the result of a search for inelastic boosted dark matter using the data corresponding to an exposure of 0.13 kton$\cdot$year, collected by the ICARUS T-600 detector during its 2012--2013 operational period at the INFN Gran Sasso Underground National Laboratory. The benchmark boosted dark matter model features a multi-particle dark sector with a U(1)$'$ gauge boson, the dark photon. The kinetic mixing of the dark photon with the Standard Model photon allows for a portal between the dark sector and the visible sector. The inelastic boosted dark matter interaction occurs when a dark matter particle inelastically scatters with an electron in the ICARUS detector, producing an outgoing, heavier dark sector state which subsequently decays back down to the dark matter particle, emitting a dark photon. The dark photon subsequently couples to a Standard Model photon through kinetic mixing. The Standard Model photon then converts to an electron-positron pair in the detector. This interaction process provides a distinct experimental signature which consists of a recoil electron from the primary interaction and an associated electron-positron pair from the secondary vertex. After analyzing 4,134 triggered events, the search results in zero observed events. Exclusion limits are set in the dark photon mass and coupling ($m_X, ε$) parameter space for several selected optimal boosted dark matter mass sets.