Probing the dark axion portal via $J/\psi$ decays at BESIII and STCF

Abstract

Large numbers of $J/\psi$ mesons can be resonantly produced at BESIII and STCF at the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=3.097$~GeV. Such $J/\psi$ mesons may undergo rare decays into an axionlike particle (ALP) $a$ and a dark photon $\gamma'$ through the dark axion portal. We investigate the exclusion reach of the existing BESIII dataset and the projected sensitivity of STCF, focusing on the mono-photon signature. We perform Monte Carlo simulations of the signal and estimate both the irreducible $J/\psi\to\gamma\nu\bar{\nu}$ background and the continuum and resonant three-photon reducible backgrounds. Detector-induced migration of three-photon events into the mono-photon signal region is parameterized by the event-level leakage probability $\epsilon_{3\gamma}^{\rm leak}=0,10^{-6},10^{-4},10^{-3}$. In the zero- and sufficiently small-leakage benchmarks, the existing BESIII dataset could probe previously unexplored parameter space, while STCF can further improve the coupling reach. Increasing leakage probabilities progressively weaken these projections, highlighting the importance of detector-level three-photon rejection in realizing the projected reach.