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Abstract
Light pseudoscalars interacting pre-dominantly with Standard Model gauge bosons (so-called axion-like particles or ALPs) occur frequently in extensions of the Standard Model. In this work we review and update existing constraints on ALPs in the keV to GeV mass region from colliders, beam dump experiments and astrophysics. We furthermore provide a detailed calculation of the expected sensitivity of Belle II, which can search for visibly and invisibly decaying ALPs, as well as long-lived ALPs. The Belle II sensitivity is found to be substantially better than previously estimated, covering wide ranges of relevant parameter space. In particular, Belle II can explore an interesting class of dark matter models, in which ALPs mediate the interactions between the Standard Model and dark matter. In these models, the relic abundance can be set via resonant freeze-out, leading to a highly predictive scenario consistent with all existing constraints but testable with single-photon searches at Belle II in the near future.
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1 ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Institute of Particle Physics, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
4 DESY, Hamburg, Germany; Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology (TTK), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
5 DESY, Hamburg, Germany