arXiv subjects

Elizabeth Long

Publications and source records attributed to Elizabeth Long.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

New physics searches at NA62

The NA62 experiment at CERN has collected a large sample of $K^+$ and $\pi^+$ decays in flight during Run 1 in 2016--2018 and the ongoing Run 2 which started in 2021. Searches for the decays $K^+\rightarrow\pi^+X$ and $\pi^+\rightarrow e^+N$ are presented using NA62 data collected in 2016--2022 and 2017--2024, respectively. Results are interpreted to constrain a range of new physics scenarios covering all four portal model scenarios. Upper limits on the $K^+\rightarrow\pi^+X$ branching ratio are established at the $10^{-11}$ level, providing constraints on dark photon, scalar and ALP couplings. From the search for heavy neutral lepton production in $\pi^+\rightarrow e^+N$ decays of beam pions, upper limits of the extended neutrino mixing matrix element $|U_{e4}|^2$ are established at the $10^{-8}$ level over the heavy neutral lepton mass range 95--126~MeV/$c^2$.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2025

Early Career Researcher Input to the European Strategy for Particle Physics Update: White Paper

This document, written by early career researchers (ECRs) in particle physics, aims to represent the perspectives of the European ECR community and serves as input for the 2025--2026 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. With input from a community-wide survey, it highlights key challenges faced by ECRs -- career stability, funding access and long-term research opportunities -- while proposing policy recommendations and targeted initiatives. It underscores the importance of practices fostering diverse, equitable, inclusive and healthy workplaces, as well as of stronger ECR communities, and highlights how effective communication and interdisciplinary collaborations reinforce the societal relevance of particle physics and promote continued support for large-scale and long-term projects. Finally, the future of both collider and beyond-collider experiments is addressed, emphasising the critical role of ECRs in shaping future projects. The ECR contribution is formed of two parts: the ten-page executive summary submitted as input to the European Strategy for Particle Physics Update and, as backup document, this extended white paper providing additional context.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2025

Blind unblinding procedure for the PADME X17 data sample

The PADME experiment at the Frascati DA$\Phi$NE LINAC has performed a search for the hypothetical X17 particle, with a mass of around 17 MeV, by scanning the energy of a positron beam striking a fixed target. The X17 should be produced from the resulting $e^+e^-$ annihilation. Since the expected mass of this particle is only roughly known, data sidebands cannot be clearly defined. Furthermore, the need to keep the analysis blind to potentially sizable signal contributions prevents a clear assessment even of the quality of the data sample in this search. In light of these challenges, this paper presents an innovative strategy adopted by the PADME Collaboration to perform data quality checks without disclosing the X17 sample. Moreover, the procedure designed to eventually unblind the data is described, together with the statistical approach adopted to extract the limits on the coupling between the X17 and the Standard Model.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Status and Prospects of PADME

The Positron Annihilation to Dark Matter Experiment (PADME) was designed and constructed to search for dark photons ($A'$) in the process $e^+e^-\rightarrow\gamma A'$, using the positron beam at the Beam Test Facility (BTF) at the National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF). Since the observation of an anomalous spectra in internal pair creation decays of nuclei seen by the collaboration at the ATOMKI institute, the PADME detector has been modified and a new data-taking run has been undertaken to probe the existance of the so-called ``X17" particle

hep-ex↗

arXiv2022

Dark sector studies with the PADME experiment

The Positron Annihilation to Dark Matter Experiment (PADME) uses the positron beam of the DA$\Phi$NE Beam-Test Facility, at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) to search for a Dark Photon $A'$. The search technique studies the missing mass spectrum of single-photon final states in $e^+e^-\rightarrow A'\gamma$ annihilation in a positron-on-thin-target experiment. This approach facilitates searches for new particles such as long lived Axion-Like-Particles, protophobic X bosons and Dark Higgs. This talk illustrated the scientific program of the experiment and its first physics results. In particular, the measurement of the cross-section of the SM process $e^+e^-\rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ at $\sqrt{s}$=21 MeV was shown.

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