Speaker
Description
We demonstrate the sensitivity of Drell-Yan production processes from deep inelastic scattering in searches for beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) physics at fixed-target or beam-dump experiments. We take heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) as a case study, produced from the decay of a light vector boson mediator with mass in the range of 2 - 20 GeV, which itself is generated via the Drell-Yan process. The produced HNLs subsequently decay into Standard Model final states. We consider several current and future experiments, including SBND, DarkQuest, DUNE Near Detector (ND), and SHiP. Utilizing $\nu \pi^0$ and $\nu e^+ e^-$ final states from HNL decays, we find that the Drell-Yan mechanism provides important contributions and significantly enhances the HNL search sensitivity, owing to the production of energetic final-state particles that are more readily detectable over the expected backgrounds. Our approach provides a powerful new technique to study HNL production at future fixed-target experiments and can readily be extended to other light BSM particle production within a broader class of dark sector models.