A dedicated detector, milliQan, is proposed for detecting new particles with small electric charge (down to 10E-3 of the charge of the electron) produced by proton collisions at CERN’s LHC Point5. Such particles could be related to the dark matter in the universe.
The apparatus consists of two detectors each with four segmented layers of scintillating plastic optically coupled to high-gain photomultipliers would be installed during 2021-22 in the PX56 drainage gallery above UXC. With the dataset that LHC Run3 will provide, milliQan will significantly extend the parameter space explored for new particles with small charges, and masses above 100 MeV.
The idea for milliQan was proposed in 2014. Shortly thereafter, an interested community agreed to perform the R&D necessary to actualize the experiment. In 2015, the milliQan collaboration was established with Haas and Hill serving as co-spokespersons.
The milliQan collaboration’s current membership includes 29 physicists, students, and engineers from 10 institutes in the US, Europe, and the Middle East (Lebanon).
Based on our previous experience with a demonstrator version of the detector, we are confident we will have milliQan recording physics quality data with high efficiency from the start of Run 3.
We have recently published updated sensitivity projections with background measurements obtained from demonstrator data, and new designs optimized from full simulation.
These studies indicate that with the expected luminosity delivered during Run 3, milliQan has discovery potential over a large, uncovered, region of the relevant parameter space.
