Revisiting the production of ALPs at B-factories

Abstract

In this paper, the production of Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) at B-factories via the process e+e− → γa is revisited. To this purpose, the relevant cross-section is computed via an effective Lagrangian with simultaneous ALP couplings to b-quarks and photons. The interplay between resonant and non-resonant contributions is shown to be relevant for experiments operating at s=mϒ(nS), with n = 1, 2, 3, while the non-resonant one dominates at ϒ(4S). These effects imply that the experimental searches performed at different quarkonia resonances are sensitive to complementary combinations of ALP couplings. To illustrate these results, constraints from existing BaBar and Belle data on ALPs decaying into invisible final states are derived, and the prospects for the Belle-II experiment are discussedThe authors acknowledge F. Anulli, D. Becirevic, S. Fajfer, A. Guerrera, C. Hearty, S.J.D. King, T. Ferben, S. Lacaprara, M. Margoni, F. Mescia, M. Passera and P. Paradisi for very useful exchanges. This project has received support by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement N◦ 674896 (ITN Elusives) and 690575 (RISE InvisiblePlus) and by the exchange of researchers project “The flavor of the invisible universe” funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI). L.M. acknowledges partial financial support by the Spanish MINECO through the “Ram´on y Cajal” programme (RYC-2015-17173), by the Spanish “Agencia Estatal de Investigaci´on” (AEI) and the EU “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional” (FEDER) through the project FPA2016-78645-P, and through the Centro de excelencia Severo Ochoa Program under grant SEV-2016-0597. L.M. thanks the Physics and Astronomy Department ‘G.Galilei’ of the Universit`a degli Studi di Padova for hospitality during the development of this projec