Search for Dark Photons Produced in 13 TeV pp Collisions

Abstract

Searches are performed for both promptlike and long-lived dark photons, A ′ , produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using A ′ → μ + μ − decays and a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb − 1 collected with the LHCb detector. The promptlike A ′ search covers the mass range from near the dimuon threshold up to 70 GeV, while the long-lived A ′ search is restricted to the low-mass region 214 < m ( A ′ ) < 350 MeV . No evidence for a signal is found, and 90% confidence level exclusion limits are placed on the γ - A ′ kinetic-mixing strength. The constraints placed on promptlike dark photons are the most stringent to date for the mass range 10.6 < m ( A ′ ) < 70 GeV , and are comparable to the best existing limits for m ( A ′ ) < 0.5 GeV . The search for long-lived dark photons is the first to achieve sensitivity using a displaced-vertex signature.