English

Novel approach to investigate ATOMKI anomaly using Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills detectors

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-02-05 v2 Nuclear Theory

Abstract

ATOMKI nuclear anomaly has suggested a new BSM (Beyond the Standard Model) boson with mass 17\sim17 MeV emitted from excited nuclei and quickly decays into a pair of e+ee^+e^-. In order to search for the new particle, we propose a new approach that utilizes the ongoing Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) 10-ton LAr (liquid argon) detectors. The neutrons from the Lujan target can scatter inelastically by the PMT glass in the CCM detector can produce the new boson which solves the ATOMKI anomaly. The new boson can be detected from its decay to a e+ee^+e^- pair. We find that CCM probes a large area of the anomaly-allowable parameter space. We also show the prediction for a 100-ton LAr detector and 5-ton EOS water detector.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.17968,
  title  = {Novel approach to investigate ATOMKI anomaly using Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills detectors},
  author = {Bhaskar Dutta and Bai-Shan Hu and Wei-Chih Huang and Richard G. Van de Water},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.17968},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures