{
  "abstract": "Nuclear reactors are intense sources of MeV gamma rays, produced in fission, radiative neutron capture and the de-excitation of fission products. Building on earlier phenomenological studies, we present a detector-independent description of the production of light, weakly coupled particles by reactor gamma rays and of their detection through scattering, absorption and decay in a nearby detector. We consider kinetically mixed dark photons, produced and detected through Compton-like processes, and axion-like particles (ALPs) coupled to photons, electrons and nucleons, produced through Primakoff conversion, Compton-like scattering and magnetic nuclear transitions such as the $2.23~\\mathrm{MeV}$ line of $p(n,γ)d$. As a concrete application, we derive the projected sensitivities of the CONUS+ germanium experiment at the Leibstadt reactor and of a conceivable $100$-kg CONUS100 upgrade. For sub-MeV dark photons, CONUS+ and CONUS100 reach kinetic mixings of $ε\\simeq1.65\\times10^{-5}$ and $1.2\\times10^{-5}$, respectively, for $0.5~\\mathrm{keV}\\lesssim m_{A'}\\lesssim0.5~\\mathrm{MeV}$. For ALPs, we show that CONUS100 can probe an unexplored region of parameter space at MeV masses, in particular through $a\\to e^+e^-$ decays of ALPs emitted in the deuteron line, assuming a energy window extended to $10~\\mathrm{MeV}$.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.38745",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Lucia Angel"
    },
    {
      "name": "Manfred Lindner"
    },
    {
      "name": "Farinaldo S. Queiroz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bilge S. Solak"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f1spwy3f79tzn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.38745",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "f1spwy3f79tzn",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38745",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ex"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.38745",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f1spwy3f79tzn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:23Z",
      "native_id": "2610.38745",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38745"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ex",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Searching for Dark Photons and ALPs using Gamma-rays from Nuclear Reactors",
  "title_text": "Searching for Dark Photons and ALPs using Gamma-rays from Nuclear Reactors",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:45Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f1spwy3f79tzn",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}