DarkQuest is a proton fixed-target experiment especially sensitive to visible dark sector signatures in MeV-GeV mass range. It proposes a few low-cost upgrades to existing detectors from the SeaQuest/SpinQuest (E-1039) Fermilab fixed target beam-dump experiment.
DarkQuest will directly search for the decays of unstable mediators and dark states to visible Standard Model particles. It can produce these dark sector particles by shooting protons into a nuclear target. When protons collide with a nucleus, a new dark sector particle might be produced.
DarkQuest distinguishes itself from other experimental initiatives in that it can cover a unique parameter space of dark matter scenarios as a compact beam dump spectrometer detector.
DarkQuest would operate on the neutrino-muon beamline of the Fermilab Accelerator Complex (NM4) and receive a high-intensity beam of 120 GeV protons from the Main Injector.
The next figure shows the location of the experiment in the Fermilab beam-line.
The DarkQuest detector The detector setup would be a version of the SeaQuest/SpinQuest spectrometer, but with an added Electromagnetic Calorimeter (Ecal). The spectrometer is made of magnets, hodoscopes (scintillator planes) and drift chambers.
Here is the schematic of the DarkQuest experiment with the Ecal in red.
Here:
DPstands forDark Photon Hodoscope. There are two
Find more on this blog post by Duc.
[1]. Dark Sectors at the Fermilab SeaQuest Experiment: Arxiv.1804.00661
[2]. Dark Scalars and Heavy Neutral Leptons at DarkQuest: Arxiv.2008.08108
[3]. DarkQuest Snowmass LOI: Link
[4]. Phenix calorimeter: Link