Muon-induced di-tau production as a probe of new physics
Abstract
The muon trident process, which involves coherent scattering to produce tau pairs, is a powerful tool for constraining dark sectors. We propose to explore this channel using future high-energy muon beams with the dedicated active-target detector, High-Energy Muon Electronic Research Apparatus (HEMERA). The detector would complement muon beam-dump searches by resolving prompt signatures and could operate from preparatory facilities involving an individual muon beam of the full Muon Collider. We illustrate its capabilities for a leptophilic scalar with Yukawa-like couplings that can mediate thermal dark matter production. With 1018 incident TeV-scale muons, even a compact 10 kg silicon-based HEMERA will extend current B-factory and (g−2)μ bounds by over an order of magnitude in coupling strength. In the leptophilic thermal dark matter paradigm, this search offers a way to probe dark sector targets beyond the neutrino floor of dark matter direct detection. This provides an additional compelling motivation for the development of high-energy muon beam infrastructure.
Related
- Muon Bremsstrahlung as a New Probe of Dark Sector at Neutrino Experiments
- Future Muon Physics Experiments: Muon Beams and Experimental Apparatus
- Toponium Production at Future Muon Colliders and in heavy ion ultraperipheral collisions
- Development of a Physics-Informed Neural Framework, MEOWN, for Rapid Prediction of Muon Stopping Sites in Crystalline Materials, for understanding Quantum Magnet employing Muon Spectroscopy
- Production of lepton-flavor-violating scalars through resonant positive-muon annihilation on atomic electrons
BibTeX
@misc{das2026muoninduced,
title = {{Muon-induced di-tau production as a probe of new physics}},
author = {Sudipta Das and Luke Kupari and Mary Hall Reno and Sebastian Trojanowski},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.05406},
eprint = {2606.05406},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05406},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Muon-induced di-tau production as a probe of new physics
AU - Sudipta Das
AU - Luke Kupari
AU - Mary Hall Reno
AU - Sebastian Trojanowski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.05406
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.05406
AB - The muon trident process, which involves coherent scattering to produce tau pairs, is a powerful tool for constraining dark sectors. We propose to explore this channel using future high-energy muon beams with the dedicated active-target detector, High-Energy Muon Electronic Research Apparatus (HEMERA). The detector would complement muon beam-dump searches by resolving prompt signatures and could operate from preparatory facilities involving an individual muon beam of the full Muon Collider. We illustrate its capabilities for a leptophilic scalar with Yukawa-like couplings that can mediate thermal dark matter production. With 10^18 incident TeV-scale muons, even a compact 10 kg silicon-based HEMERA will extend current B-factory and (g−2)_μ bounds by over an order of magnitude in coupling strength. In the leptophilic thermal dark matter paradigm, this search offers a way to probe dark sector targets beyond the neutrino floor of dark matter direct detection. This provides an additional compelling motivation for the development of high-energy muon beam infrastructure.
ER -