MRI: Track 1 Development of DarkQuest: A Dark Sector Upgrade to SpinQuest at the 120 GeV Fermilab Main Injector

对暗物质的探索和理解是21世纪粒子物理学的重大问题之一。扩大我们寻找暗物质的质量范围和技术是全球粒子物理计划的一个组成部分。该奖项将升级SpinQuest光谱仪，创建DarkQuest实验，并使寻找暗物质成为可能。DarkQuest实验将是一个质子固定目标实验，具有在兆位电子伏特到千兆电子伏特质量范围内对一系列可见的黑暗区域特征的领先灵敏度。这些特征包括暗光子，强相互作用大质量粒子（SIMPs），以及可以解释μ子异常磁矩的模型。DarkQuest提供了一个独特的机会，带来动手粒子物理经验，从组装到调试到操作，到新一代的本科生和研究生，包括历史上黑人大学的成员。SpinQuest实验是一个束流转储实验，目前在费米实验室主注入器上运行，入射质子束为120 GeV。该实验旨在测量质子内海夸克的总自旋贡献。SpinQuest升级后的电磁量热计来自已退役的PHENIX实验，将允许粒子识别，从而观察到新的特征，包括位移的双电子最终状态。DAQ和触发系统的升级将进一步提高探测暗扇区特征的能力。此外，对极化目标的升级将使新的、独特的核性质测量成为可能。DarkQuest可以搜索范围广泛的新粒子，如长寿的暗光子、暗标量、类轴子粒子和DM激发态，从而导致广泛的物理程序。对于具有位移特征的轻暗物质搜索，搜索将比SpinQuest提高100倍，使其在不久的将来成为世界上最敏感的位移光暗物质实验。此外，DarkQuest将在以前从未探索过的兴趣区域探索新的黑暗部门模型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The search and understanding of dark matter is one of the great problems of 21st-century particle physics. Expanding the mass range and techniques by which we search for dark matter is an integral part of the worldwide particle physics program. This award will upgrade the SpinQuest spectrometer, creating the DarkQuest Experiment and enabling the search for dark matter. The DarkQuest experiment will be a proton fixed-target experiment with leading sensitivity to an array of visible dark sector signatures in the mega-electron volt to giga-electron volt mass range. These signatures include dark photons, strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs), and models that can explain the muon anomalous magnetic moment. DarkQuest provides a unique opportunity to bring hands-on particle physics experience, from assembly to commissioning to operation, to a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students, including members of a historically black university.The SpinQuest experiment is a beam dump experiment that currently runs on the Fermilab Main Injector with an incoming proton beam of 120 GeV. The experiment is designed to measure the total spin contribution of the sea quarks within the proton. The upgrade of SpinQuest with an electromagnetic calorimeter from the decommissioned PHENIX experiment will allow for particle identification leading to the observation of new signatures, including displaced di-electron final states. An upgrade to the DAQ and trigger systems will further improve the ability to detect dark sector signatures. Additionally, an upgrade to the polarized target will enable new, unique measurements of nuclear properties. DarkQuest can search for a wide range of new particles, such as long-lived dark photons, dark scalars, axion-like particles, and DM excited states, leading to a broad physics program. For light dark matter searches with displaced signatures, searches will be enhanced by a factor of 100 over SpinQuest, allowing it to be the world’s most sensitive displaced light dark matter experiment in the near future. Moreover, DarkQuest will explore novel dark sector models in regions of interest that have never been explored before.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.