Speaker
Description
Beyond its primary physics goal of searching for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) in $^{76}$Ge, LEGEND-200 is also sensitive to other physics beyond the standard model. The experiment’s modular design and low background index is well suited to a search for fractionally charged particles, also known as lightly ionizing particles due to their expected signatures in detectors. Previous best direct detection limits were set by the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR and CUORE in the charge ranges e/1000 to e/25 and e/24 to e/5, respectively. In this poster, we will show that LEGEND-200 will set a world-leading limit using its first year of data, assuming no candidate events are observed. We will discuss the strategies to reject various backgrounds that can resemble the track-like signatures with low energy deposition. Using dedicated simulations, we will show the sensitivity of LEGEND-200 to the potential flux of lightly ionizing particles both in completed runs and future data-taking.
This work is supported by the U.S. DOE, and the NSF, the LANL, ORNL and LBNL LDRD programs; the European ERC and Horizon programs; the German DFG, BMBF, and MPG; the Italian INFN; the Polish NCN and MNiSW; the Czech MEYS; the Slovak APVV; the Swiss SNF; the UK STFC; the Canadian NSERC; the LNGS and SURF facilities.