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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

FLArE up dark sectors with EM form factors at the LHC forward physics facility

Despite being mostly secluded, dark sector particles may feebly interact with photons via a small mass-dimension 4 millicharge, a mass-dimension 5 magnetic and electric dipole moment, or a mass-dimension 6 anapole moment and charge radius. If sufficiently light, the LHC may produce an intense and collimated beam of these particles in the far forward direction. We study the prospects of searching for such dark sector particles with electromagnetic form factors via their electron scattering signature in the Forward Liquid Argon Experiment (FLArE) at the Forward Physics Facility (FPF). We find that FLArE can provide new probes of sub-GeV dark particles with dipole moments and strong sensitivities for millicharged particles in the 100 MeV to 100 GeV region. This complements other search strategies using scintillation signatures or dark matter direct detection and allows for probing strongly interacting dark matter motivated by the EDGES anomaly. Along with the FORMOSA detector, this leads to a very versatile and leading experimental program in the search for millicharged particles in the FPF.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2026

First Search for Dark Sector e+e- Explanations of the MiniBooNE Anomaly at MicroBooNE

The MiniBooNE anomaly has puzzled the neutrino physics community for over two decades. MicroBooNE has previously searched for anomalous electron and photon excesses as potential explanations but the mystery persists. In this poster, we present the first direct test of dark sector models in which dark neutrinos scatter, then decay into e+e− pairs and missing energy, mimicking the MiniBooNE signal. These models have recently emerged as compelling candidates that evade existing constraints. Using 6.87×1020 protons-on-target in the Booster Neutrino Beam, we select forward-going, coherently produced e+e− events in the MicroBooNE detector. We observe 95 events against a constrained background prediction of 69.7±17.3. We set the world's first direct limits on this class of dark sector models, excluding at 95% CL the majority of parameter space viable as a solution to the MiniBooNE anomaly.

Basque, Vincent Marc [Edinburgh U.] (ORCID:0000000↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutrino-dark sector equilibration and primordial element abundances

After neutrinos decouple from the photon bath, they can populate a thermal dark sector. If this neutrino cooling occurs at a temperature above ∼ 100 keV , it can impact light element abundances. We calculate the changes to the Y P and D / H abundances in this scenario with a suitably customized version of the public big bang nucleosynthesis code PRIMAT. If electron neutrinos significantly participate in the cooling, we find limits down to temperatures as low as 100 keV. And if the dark sector undergoes a “step” in N eff , there can be additional, ω b -dependent constraints. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Giovanetti, Cara (ORCID:0000000316113379)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Testing meson portal dark sector solutions to the MiniBooNE anomaly at the Coherent CAPTAIN Mills experiment

A solution to the MiniBooNE excess invoking rare three-body decays of the charged pions and kaons to new states in the MeV mass scale was recently proposed as a dark-sector explanation. This class of solution illuminates the fact that, while the charged pions were focused in the target-mode run, their decay products were isotropically suppressed in the beam-dump-mode run in which no excess was observed. This suggests a new physics solution correlated to the mesonic sector. We investigate an extended set of phenomenological models that can explain the MiniBooNE excess as a dark sector solution, utilizing long-lived particles that might be produced in the three-body decays of the charged mesons and the two-body anomalous decays of the neutral mesons. Over a broad set of interactions with the long-lived particles, we show that these scenarios can be compatible with constraints from LSND, KARMEN, and MicroBooNE, and evaluate the sensitivity of the ongoing and future data taken by the Coherent CAPTAIN Mills experiment to a potential discovery in this parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Light dark sectors through the Fermion portal

Pairs of Standard Model fermions form dimension-3 singlet operators that can couple to new dark sector states. This “fermion portal” is to be contrasted with the lower-dimensional Higgs, vector and neutrino singlet portals. We characterise its distinct phenomenology and place effective field theory bounds on this framework, focusing on the case of fermion portals to a pair of light dark sector fermions. We obtain current and projected limits on the dimension-6 effective operator scale from a variety of meson decay experiments, missing energy and long-lived particle searches at colliders, as well as astrophysical and cosmological bounds. The DarkEFT public code is made available for recasting these limits, which we illustrate with various examples including an integrated- out heavy dark photon.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quasi-sterile neutrinos from dark sectors. Part I. BSM matter effects in neutrino oscillations and the short-baseline anomalies.

Quasi-sterile neutrinos are a natural consequence of dark sectors interacting with the Standard Model (SM) sector via neutrino- and vector-portals. Essentially, quasi-sterile neutrinos are light dark sector fermions with two generic properties: (i) they mix with the active neutrinos of the SM, and (ii) they are charged under a vector mediator that couples feebly to SM matter. Various interesting phenomenological consequences result from this class of particles. In this article, we investigate one such consequence: new, beyond the SM matter effects that can alter in-medium neutrino oscillations. In particular, for special windows of energy and matter densities, active neutrinos can resonantly oscillate into sterile neutrinos. We take advantage of this feature to build a quasi-sterile neutrino model that can explain the MiniBooNE and LSND anomalies, while remaining compatible with observations from long-baseline reactor- and accelerator-based neutrino experiments. This model is also likely compatible with the recent results reported by the MicroBooNE collaboration (albeit we cannot precisely quantify this claim due to a lack of information in MicroBooNE’s public data releases to date). Implications for solar neutrinos and $ν_e$ disappearance searches are also briefly discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Limits to Gauge Coupling in the Dark Sector Set by the Nonobservation of Instanton-Induced Decay of Super-Heavy Dark Matter in the Pierre Auger Observatory Data

Instantons, which are nonperturbative solutions to Yang-Mills equations, provide a signal for the occurrence of quantum tunneling between distinct classes of vacua. They can give rise to decays of particles otherwise forbidden. Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory, we search for signatures of such instanton-induced processes that would be suggestive of super-heavy particles decaying in the Galactic halo. These particles could have been produced during the post-inflationary epoch and match the relic abundance of dark matter inferred today. The nonobservation of the signatures searched for allows us to derive a bound on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: α X ≲ 0.09, for 10 9 ≲ M X /GeV < 10 19 . Conversely, we obtain that, for instance, a reduced coupling constant α X = 0.09 excludes masses M X ≳ 3 x 10 13 GeV. In the context of dark matter production from gravitational interactions alone, we illustrate how these bounds are complementary to those obtained on the Hubble rate at the end of inflation from the nonobservation of tensor modes in the cosmological microwave background.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutrinos and the Dark Sector [Slides]

The presentation covers the following topics: Neutrino Properties; Short Baseline Neutrino Anomalies; Dark Sector Models; SBN Project at Fermilab; CCM Experiment at Lujan; and, Conclusion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Early dark sector, the Hubble tension, and the swampland

We consider the interplay of the Early Dark Energy (EDE) model, the Swampland Distance Conjecture (SDC), and cosmological parameter tensions. EDE is a proposed resolution of the Hubble tension relying upon a near-Planckian scalar field excursion, while the SDC predicts an exponential sensitivity of masses of other fields to such an excursion, m ∝ e –c |ΔΦ|/Mpl with c ~ 0(1). Meanwhile, EDE is in tension with large-scale structure (LSS) data, due to shifts in the standard ΛCDM parameters necessary to fit the cosmic microwave background (CMB). One might hope that a proper treatment of the model, e.g., accounting for the SDC, may ameliorate the tension with LSS. Motivated by these considerations, we introduce the Early Dark Sector (EDS) model, wherein the mass of dark matter is exponentially sensitive to super-Planckian field excursions of the EDE scalar. The EDS model exhibits new phenomenology in both the early and late universe, the latter due to an EDE-mediated dark matter self-interaction. This dark matter-philic "fifth force", while constrained to be small, remains active in the late universe and is not screened in virialized halos. We find that the new interaction with dark matter partially resolves the LSS tension. However, the marginalized posteriors are nonetheless consistent with f EDE = 0 at 95% CL once the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 measurement of S 8 is included. We study constraints on the model from Atacama Cosmology Telescope data, and find a factor of two improvement on the error bar on the SDC parameter c, along with an increased preference for the EDE component. Here, we discuss the implications of these constraints for the SDC, and find the tightest observational constraints to date on a swampland parameter, suggesting that an EDE description of cosmological data is in tension with the SDC.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A systematic study of hidden sector dark matter: application to the gamma-ray and antiproton excesses

In hidden sector models, dark matter does not directly couple to the particle content of the Standard Model, strongly suppressing rates at direct detection experiments, while still allowing for large signals from annihilation. In this paper, we conduct an extensive study of hidden sector dark matter, covering a wide range of dark matter spins, mediator spins, interaction diagrams, and annihilation final states, in each case determining whether the annihilations are s-wave (thus enabling efficient annihilation in the universe today). We then go on to consider a variety of portal interactions that allow the hidden sector annihilation products to decay into the Standard Model. We broadly classify constraints from relic density requirements and dwarf spheroidal galaxy observations. In the scenario that the hidden sector was in equilibrium with the Standard Model in the early universe, we place a lower bound on the portal coupling, as well as on the dark matter’s elastic scattering cross section with nuclei. We apply our hidden sector results to the observed Galactic Center gamma-ray excess and the cosmic-ray antiproton excess. We find that both of these excesses can be simultaneously explained by a variety of hidden sector models, without any tension with constraints from observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ultraviolet running constraints on low mass dark sectors

We analyze the UV breakdown of Sub-GeV dark matter models that live in a new, dark U(1) sector. Many of these models include a scalar field, which is either the dark matter itself or a dark Higgs field that generates mass terms for the dark matter particle via spontaneous symmetry breaking. A quartic self coupling of this scalar field is generically allowed, and we show that its running is largely governed by the strength of the U(1) gauge field, α D . Furthermore, it consistently has a lower Landau pole than the gauge coupling. Link fields, which couple to both the dark sector and the Standard Model (SM), connect these Landau poles to constraints on SM charged particles. Current LHC constraints on link fields are compatible with α D ≲ 0.5 - 1 for most of the mass range in most models, while smaller values, α D ≲ 0.15, are favored for Majorana DM.

new light particles↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mirror dark sector solution of the Hubble tension with time-varying fine-structure constant

Here we explore a model introduced by Cyr-Racine et al. that resolves the Hubble tension by invoking a “mirror world” dark sector with energy density a fixed fraction of the “ordinary” sector of Λ+ cold dark matter. Although it reconciles cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure observations with local measurements of the Hubble constant, H 0 , the model requires a value of the primordial helium mass fraction, Y p = 0.170 ± 0.025, that is discrepant with observations and with the predictions of big bang nucleosynthesis. We consider a variant of the model with standard helium mass fraction but with the value of the electromagnetic fine-structure constant, α, slightly different during photon decoupling from its present value. If α at that epoch is lower than its current value by Δα ≃ -2 x 10 -5 , then we can achieve the same Hubble tension resolution as in the work by Cyr-Racine et al. but with consistent helium abundance. As an example of such time evolution of α, we consider a toy model of an ultralight scalar field, with mass m < 4 x 10 -29 eV, coupled to electromagnetism, which evolves after photon decoupling at redshift z ≃ 10 3 , and that with appropriate coupling appears to be consistent with late-time constraints on α variation and the weak equivalence principle.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experiments and Facilities for Accelerator-Based Dark Sector Searches

This paper provides an overview of experiments and facilities for accelerator-based dark matter searches as part of the US Community Study on the Future of Particle Physics (Snowmass 2021). Companion white papers to this paper present the physics drivers: thermal dark matter, visible dark portals, and new flavors and rich dark sectors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Probing Dark Sectors with Neutron Stars

Tensions in the measurements of neutron and kaon weak decays, such as of the neutron lifetime, may speak to the existence of new particles and dynamics not present in the Standard Model (SM). In scenarios with dark sectors, particles that couple feebly to those of the SM appear. We offer a focused overview of such possibilities and describe how the observations of neutron stars, which probe either their structure or dynamics, limit them. In realizing these constraints, we highlight how the assessment of particle processes within dense baryonic matter impacts the emerging picture—and we emphasize both the flavor structure of the constraints and their broader connections to cogenesis models of dark matter and baryogenesis.

baryon number↗
DOE OSTI2025

Supercooled phase transitions in conformal dark sectors explain NANOGrav data

According to recent lore, it is difficult to explain the evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background obtained by pulsar timing arrays with supercooled first-order phase transitions (FOPTs). We demonstrate that supercooled FOPTs in dark U(1) models with a conformal dark sector easily explain the nHz signal at NANOGrav.

Conformal models↗
DOE OSTI2023

Anatomy of the electroweak phase transition for dark sector induced baryogenesis

We investigate the electroweak phase transition patterns for a recently proposed baryogenesis model with CP violation originated in the dark sector. The model includes a complex scalar singlet-Higgs boson portal, a U(1) l gauge lepton symmetry with a Z ' gauge boson portal and a fermionic dark matter particle. We find a novel thermal history of the scalar sector, featuring a Z 2 breaking singlet vacuum in the early Universe driven by a dark Yukawa coupling, that induces a one-step strongly first order electroweak phase transition. We explore the parameter space that generates the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry and dark matter relic abundance, while being consistent with constraints from electric dipole moment, collider searches, and dark matter direct detection bounds. The complex singlet can be produced via the Higgs portal and decays into Standard Model particles after traveling a certain distance. We explore the reach for long-lived singlet scalars at the 13 TeV Large Hadron Collider with \( \mathcal{L} \) = 139 fb - 1 and show its impact on the parameter space of the model. Setting aside currently unresolved theoretical uncertainties, we estimate the gravitational wave signatures detectable at future observatories.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Searching for Strongly Coupled Dark Sectors with Unsupervised and Generative Learning

Recipient of the URA Early Career Award for groundbreaking searches for dark matter arising from strongly coupled dark sectors with the CMS detector, pioneering work in ML-based model-independent anomaly detection for collider and astrophysics experiments, and leadership in the development of new AI/ML techniques to improve event reconstruction and detector simulation in particle physics, as well as novel strategies to accelerate AI inference and throughput with heterogeneous computing using coprocessors as a service.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interacting dark sector within ETHOS: Cosmological constraints from SPT cluster abundance with DES and HST weak lensing data

We use galaxy cluster abundance measurements from the South Pole Telescope enhanced by multicomponent matched filter confirmation and complemented with mass information obtained using weak-lensing data from Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) and targeted Hubble Space Telescope observations for probing deviations from the cold dark matter paradigm. Concretely, we consider a class of dark sector models featuring interactions between dark matter (DM) and a dark radiation (DR) component within the framework of the effective theory of structure formation (ETHOS). We focus on scenarios that lead to power suppression over a wide range of scales, and thus can be tested with data sensitive to large scales, as realized, for example, for DM–DR interactions following from an unbroken non-Abelian 𝑆⁢𝑈⁡(𝑁) gauge theory (interaction rate with power-law index 𝑛 = 0 within the ETHOS parametrization). Cluster abundance measurements are mostly sensitive to the amount of DR interacting with DM, parametrized by the ratio of DR temperature to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature, 𝜉 DR = 𝑇 DR /𝑇 CMB . We find an upper limit 𝜉 DR < 17% at 95% credibility. When the cluster data are combined with Planck 2018 CMB data along with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements we find 𝜉 DR < 10%, corresponding to a limit on the abundance of interacting DR that is around 3 times tighter than that from CMB + BAO data alone. We also discuss the complementarity of weak lensing informed cluster abundance studies with probes sensitive to smaller scales, explore the impact on our analysis of massive neutrinos, and comment on a slight preference for the presence of a nonzero interacting DR abundance, which enables a physical solution to the 𝑆 8 tension.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗