Speaker
Description
ATOMKI Collaboration (Debrecen) observed anomalies in the angular distribution of e+e− pairs emitted via Internal pair Conversion (IPC) during nuclear de-excitation of the 8Be, 4He, and 12C. This enhancements seem to be compatible with the production, and successive decay, of a new vector boson with a mass of ∼ 17 MeV. PADME Collaboration performed an invariant mass scan in the sensible region where the new particle is expected to be during the RUN-3 completed at the end of 2022. The collaboration aims to search for X17 studiyng the resonant production, stimulated by the interaction of a positron beam impinging on electrons of a fixed target: e+e− → X17 → e+e−. Starting from the study of background processes due to the known interactions of the Standard Model, the sensitivity to the production of X17 was evaluated. These studies allowed tuning procedures for the data collection carried out in the second half of 2022. If PADME does not observe any signal, this will still allow setting stringent limits on the coupling of X17 with electrons.
