Speaker
Description
Millicharged particles (mCPs), with a fractional electric charge, appear in several extensions of the Standard Model. They have the potential to explain anomalies in particle physics and cosmology, and may even constitute a fraction of the dark matter. At accelerators, mCPs could be produced through several mechanisms such as meson decays, bremsstrahlung and Drell-Yan processes. Detecting mCPs, however, remains challenging due to their rare interactions and minimal ionization signals. Skipper-CCDs, with their low ionization threshold and electron-counting capability, are a promising technology for mCP searches. In this talk, I will present two ongoing efforts to search for mCPs at accelerator facilities with skipper-CCDs. First, the Dark BeaTS experiment, a ~100-gram skipper-CCD detector currently being commissioned in the MINOS cavern at Fermilab, aims to search for mCPs from the NuMI beam while exploring tracking capabilities with its multi-layer design. Second, the Moskita setup at the LHC, housing a ~2-gram skipper-CCD detector and running since March 2024 in the milliQAN cavern, aims to assess the feasibility of using skipper-CCDs to search for mCPs from proton-proton collisions. Together, these efforts are paving the way for future dark sector skipper-CCD experiments at accelerator facilities.
