Proton Fixed-Target Scintillation Experiment to Search for Minicharged Particles

Understand

We propose a low-cost and movable setup to probe minicharged particles (or milli-charged particles) using high-intensity proton fixed-target facilities.

• This proposal, FerMINI, consists of a milliQan-type detector, requiring multi-coincident (nominally, triple-coincident) scintillation signatures within a small time window, located downstream of the proton target of a neutrino experiment.
• During the collisions of a large number of protons on the target, intense minicharged particle beams may be produced via meson photo-decays and Drell-Yan production.
• We take advantage of the high statistics, shielding, and potential neutrino-detector-related background reduction to search for minicharged particles in two potential sites: the MINOS near detector hall and the proposed DUNE near detector hall, both at Fermilab.