Search for invisible decays of sub-GeV dark photons in missing-energy events at the CERN SPS

We report on a direct search for sub-GeV dark photons (A') which might be produced in the reaction e^- Z \to e^- Z A' via kinetic mixing with photons by 100 GeV electrons incident on an active target in the NA64 experiment at the CERN SPS. The A's would decay invisibly into dark matter particles resulting in events with large missing energy. No evidence for such decays was found with 2.75\cdot 10^{9} electrons on target. We set new limits on the \gamma-A' mixing strength and exclude the invisible A' with a mass < 100 MeV as an explanation of the muon g_\mu-2 anomaly.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Typos corrected, references adde

Constraints on New Physics in the Electron g-2 from a Search for Invisible Decays of a Scalar, Pseudoscalar, Vector, and Axial Vector

We performed a search for a new generic $X$ boson, which could be a scalar ($S$), pseudoscalar ($P$), vector ($V$) or an axial vector ($A$) particle produced in the 100 GeV electron scattering off nuclei, $e^- Z \to e^- Z X$, followed by its invisible decay in the NA64 experiment at CERN. No evidence for such process was found in the full NA64 data set of $2.84\times 10^{11}$ electrons on target. We place new bounds on the $S, P, V, A$ coupling strengths to electrons, and set constraints on their contributions to the electron anomalous magnetic moment $a_e$, $|\Delta a_{X}| \lesssim 10^{-15} - 10^{-13}$ for the $X$ mass region $m_X\lesssim 1$ GeV. These results are an order of magnitude more sensitive compared to the current accuracy on $a_e$ from the electron $g-2$ experiments and recent high-precision determination of the fine structure constant.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Search for a light Z ' in the L-mu - L-tau scenario with the NA64-e experiment at CERN

The extension of Standard Model made by inclusion of additional U(1) gauge Lμ-Lτ symmetry can explain the difference between the measured and the predicted value of the muon magnetic moment and solve the tension in B meson decays. This model predicts the existence of a new, light Z′ vector boson, predominantly coupled to second and third generation leptons, whose interaction with electrons is due to a loop mechanism involving muons and taus. In this work, we present a rigorous evaluation of the upper limits in the Z′ parameter space, obtained from the analysis of the data collected by the NA64-e experiment at CERN SPS, that performed a search for light dark matter with 2.84×1011 electrons impinging with 100 GeV on an active thick target. The resulting limits touch the muon g-2 preferred band for values of the Z′ mass of order of 1 MeV, while the sensitivity projections for the future high-statistics NA64-e runs demonstrate the power of the electrons/positron beam approach in this theoretical scenario