Speaker
Description
The existence of dark matter remains one of the most significant open questions in particle physics. The DarkMESA experiment aims to search for light dark matter (LDM) in an unexplored mass and coupling regime. This parasitic beam dump experiment will be located downstream of the P2 experiment at the new MESA accelerator in Mainz. It is planned to operate for 10,000 hours in extracted beam mode, using a $150\mu A$ electron beam with an energy of $150 MeV$.
In the simplest model of LDM, the dark matter particle $\chi$ couples to a massive vector particle, the dark photon $\gamma'$. In this framework, electrons in the beam dump can produce $\gamma'$ via a Bremsstrahlung-like process. If kinematically allowed, these dark photons then decay into $\chi\Bar{\chi}$ pairs. If LDM exists within the targeted parameter space, a fraction of the produced LDM will scatter off electrons or nuclei in one of the calorimeter’s Cherenkov crystals, generating a measurable signal. Given the low probability of such an event, dark counts can significantly overlay the interesting signal.
This contribution focuses on cooled SiPMs in coincidence as a possible readout method to drastically reduce dark counts to a negligible level. This allows an initial estimate to determine the minimum energy emitted in the detector up to which LDM particles can be detected.
