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arXiv · 2208.03377

On direct observation of millicharged particles at $c$-$\tau$ factories and other $e^+e^-$-colliders

Dmitry Gorbunov·Dmitry Kalashnikov·Pavel Pakhlov·Timofey Uglov
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Abstract

Hypothetical particles with tiny electric charges (millicharged particles or MCPs) can be produced in electron-positron annihilation if kinematically allowed. Typical searches for them at $e^+e^-$ colliders exploit a signature of a single photon with missing energy carried away by the undetected MCP pair. We put forward an idea to look alternatively for MCP energy deposits inside a tracker, which is a direct observation. The new signature is relevant for non-relativistic MCPs, and we illustrate its power on the example of the $c$-$\tau$ factory, where we argued that the corresponding searches may be background-free. We find that it can probe the MCP charge down to $3\times10^{-3}$ of the electron charge for the MCP masses in ${\cal O}(5)$ MeV vicinity of each energy beam value where the factory will collect a luminosity of 100 fb$^{-1}$ in one year. This mass region is unreachable with the searches for missing energy and single photon.

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Dmitry Gorbunov, Dmitry Kalashnikov, Pavel Pakhlov, Timofey Uglov. 2022-08-05. On direct observation of millicharged particles at $c$-$\tau$ factories and other $e^+e^-$-colliders. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138033

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