Search for Neutrino-Produced Long-Lived Particles Using the SBND Cosmic Ray Tagger Beam Telescope
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is a liquid argon time projection chamber in Fermilab's Short-Baseline Neutrino Program, positioned 110 meters from the neutrino target along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB). In addition to its neutrino physics goals, SBND enables searches for new physics, including long-lived particles (LLPs) produced via neutrino-nucleus upscattering that decay into visible final states. Although neutrino data taking with the full SBND experiment began in December 2024, a subset of the Cosmic Ray Tagger (CRT) system operated from 2017--2018 as a standalone detector, referred to as the CRT Beam Telescope, collecting data corresponding to $2.95\times 10^{20}$ protons on target from the BNB. Originally intended for commissioning and performance studies, the substantial dataset collected also enables searches for displaced LLP decays. This paper presents the first search for physics beyond the Standard Model using data from the SBND CRT Beam Telescope, targeting LLP decays into electron-positron pairs. We observe no significant excess above the expected background and set 90% confidence-level upper limits on an effective production cross section at the level of $10^{-38}$ cm$^2$ for laboratory decay lengths of 0.3-100 m. These results complement existing searches by probing displaced decay signatures at meter-scale decay lengths.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Acciarri, R., Aliaga-Soplin, L., Aldana, D. Andrade, Andreopoulos, C., Antonakis, A., Balasubramanian, S., Barnard, A., Basque, V., Bateman, J. R., Beever, A., Behera, B., Betancourt, M., Bhat, A., Bishai, M., Blake, A., Bogart, B., Brailsford, D., Brandt, A., Brickner, S., Brunetti, M. B., Buzzard, G. A. N., Camilleri, L., Caratelli, D., Carber, D., Carlson, B., Carneiro, M. F., Fernandez, R. Castillo, Cavanna, F., Chappell, A., Chen, H., Chung, S., Coackley, R., Crespo-Anadón, J. I., Cuesta, C., Dabburi, Y., Dalager, O., Dall'Olio, M., Das, S. K., Del Tutto, M., Djurcic, Z., Pimentel, V. do Lago, Dominguez-Vidales, S., Donnachie, M., Dubnowski, M., Duffy, K., Dytman, S., Ereditato, A., Espinoza, E., Evans, J. J., Ezeribe, A. C., Fan, C., Filkins, A., Fleming, B., Foreman, W., Franco, D., Fricano, G., Furic, I., Furmanski, A. P., Gao, S., Garcia-Gamez, D., Gardiner, S., Gil-Botella, I., Gollapinni, S., Green, P., Griffith, W. C., Hagaman, L., Hamilton, P., Harris, B., Hergenhan, A., Hernandez-Morquecho, M., James, C., Jones, R. S., Jung, M., Junk, T., Kalra, D., Karagiorgi, G., Kumar, F., Kashur, L., Kelly, K. J., Ketchum, W., King, M. J., Klein, J., Kotsiopoulou, L., Kreslo, I., Kroupová, T., Kudryavtsev, V. A., Lay, H., LaZur, R., Li, J. -Y., Lin, K., Littlejohn, B. R., Liu, L., Lorca, D., Louis, W. C., Luo, X., Machado, A. A., Machado, P., Mariani, C., Marinho, F., Marshall, J., Martin-Morales, C., Mastbaum, A., Mavrokoridis, K., McConkey, N., McCusker, B., Mclaughlin, J., Mettler, T., Mooney, M., Moor, A. F., Moreno-Granados, G., Moura, C. A., Mueller, J., Mulleriababu, S., Navrer-Agasson, A., Nebot-Guinot, M., Nguyen, V. C. L., Nicolás-Arnaldos, F., Nowak, J., Oh, S. B., Oza, N., Palamara, O., Pallat, N., Pandey, V., Papadopoulou, A., Parkinson, H. B., Paton, J., Paulucci, L., Pavlovic, Z., Payne, D., Pelegrina-Gutiérrez, L., Peres, O. L. G., Plows, J., Putnam, G., Qian, X., Qie, Y., Rajagopalan, R., Ratoff, P., Ray, H., Reggiani-Guzzo, M., Roda, M., Romeo-Araujo, J., Ross-Lonergan, M., Rowe, N., Roy, P., Sanchez-Castillo, A., Schmitz, D. W., Schneider, A., Schukraft, A., Scott, H., Segreto, E., Shaevitz, M., Shiba, K., Singh, P., Slater, B., Smith, J., Soares-Nunes, M., Soderberg, M., Söldner-Rembold, S., Spitz, J., Stancari, M., Strauss, T., Szelc, A. M., Sanchez-Lucas, P., Thorpe, C., Totani, D., Toups, M., Touramanis, C., Tung, L., Valdiviesso, G. A., Van de Water, R., Vázquez-Ramos, A., Wan, L., Weber, M., Wei, H., Wester, T., White, A. J., Wilkinson, A., Wilson, P., Wongjirad, T., Worcester, E., Worcester, M., Yadav, S., Yandel, E., Yates, L., Yebes, S., Yu, B., Yu, H., Yu, J., Zamorano, B., Zennamo, J., Zhang, C.
Institutions: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, The University of Texas at Arlington, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Liverpool, University of California, Santa Barbara, Mount Holyoke College, University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, University of Chicago, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lancaster University, University of Kansas, Columbia University, Colorado State University, University of Florida, University of Warwick, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Queen Mary University of London, University of Sussex, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Louisiana State University, Syracuse University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Palermo, University of Minnesota, Universidad de Granada, Texas A&M University, University of Bern, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Virginia Tech, Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Universidade Federal do ABC, Hanyang University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Tufts University, University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Topic: Neutrino Physics Research
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Arthritis National Research Foundation, Comunidad de Madrid, UK Research and Innovation, Royal Society, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Office of Science, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Advanced Scientific Computing Research, High Energy Physics, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Los Alamos National Laboratory
OpenAlex ID: W7224079584