LEGEND-200's Sensitivity to Fractionally Charged Particles
POSTER
Abstract
LEGEND-200 is an ultra-low-background experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay using high-purity germanium detectors enriched in 76Ge. Its low background and high sensitivity also enable searches for Beyond-the-Standard-Model physics. This work presents simulation studies of fractionally charged particles (FCPs) passing through LEGEND-200 to assess the experiment’s sensitivity to such particles. FCPs are hypothetical particles carrying an electric charge smaller than the elementary charge e. This study evaluates whether LEGEND-200 can set a world-leading limit on the FCP flux and explores how a new data-taking strategy could improve sensitivity. Based on simulation results, LEGEND-200 can set a world-leading limit in the charge range e/70 to e/18 with one year of data, extended to e/14 with three years. This represents up to a 29× (83×) improvement over the current best limit for one (three) years of data.
*This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under award number DE-SC0022339. Additional support was provided by the U.S. DOE and NSF; the LANL, ORNL, and LBNL LDRD programs; the European ERC and Horizon programs; the German DFG, BMBF, and MPG; the Italian INFN; the Polish NCN and MNiSW; the Czech MEYS; the Slovak RDA; the Swiss SNF; the UK STFC; the Canadian NSERC and CFI; and the LNGS and SURF facilities.
Presenters
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Carter J Chapman
- UNC-Chapel Hill