Only slightly "Amplifying nonresonant production of dark sector particles in scattering dominance regime''

Abstract

In recent article [PhysRevD.109.055041 (2024)] it has been argued that production of dark photons -- hypothetical massive vectors -- in nuclear reactors via mixing with the visible photons is considerably enhanced (by a factor of 10) due to Compton scattering of the latter. We revisit the production of dark photons in the reactor environment and find that although the scattering of photons indeed leads to a larger number of produced dark photons, the overall enhancement is considerably smaller than what has been obtained in Ref. [PhysRevD.109.055041 (2024)]. Our findings are validated using GEANT simulations, which take into account oscillations between ordinary and visible photons and interaction of the latter with matter. The correction to the limit on mixing parameter between dark and visible photons is expected to be below 30% for all masses. It's application must be accompanied with an update on the original spectrum of photons produced in nuclear reactions inside the nuclear reactor.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: Photon interaction lengths for Compton scattering, atomic photoelectric effect and pair production processes in uranium matter. Data are taken from 148746.
• Figure 2: Energy spectrum of outgoing photon after Compton scattering for a set of initial photons energies.
• Figure 3: Enhancement factor $f(E)$ for the dark photon production due to secondary photons from Compton scattering in media made of U$^{238}$.
• Figure 4: The spectra of visible photons as well as dark photons calculated without scattering effect, with Copmton-scattered photons and using GEANT simulation. We assume $m_X=300$ eV, $\epsilon=0.01$ and 2.9 GW thermal power of the reactor.