Speaker
Description
The origin and composition of Dark Matter (DM) remain one of the major open questions in particle physics. Dark Sectors (DS) provide a compelling framework in which DM can arise as a thermal relic in the sub-GeV mass range (the so called Light DM). In this talk, I will provide an overview of the potential of fixed target experiments to probe such scenarios and of their complementarity with collider and direct detection searches.
In particular, I will focus on NA64, one of the world leading experiments searching for DS. The experiment pioneered the active-dump technique and exploits uniquely the use of complementary high-energy beams available at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator: e-/+, muon, and hadron beams. Its physics program targets LDM models and a variety of New Physics scenarios below the electroweak scale (ALPs, inelastic DM, Lepton Flavour Violation, Z’ in B-L and Lμ-L𝜏 models…). I will present the latest results obtained by the experiment as well as the expected projections from the analysis of the statistics collected until 2026. Finally, I will discuss the future prospects of the experiment beyond the next CERN shutdown.