Searching for Dark Photons and ALPs using Gamma-rays from Nuclear Reactors
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 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≃1.65×10−5 and 1.2×10−5, respectively, for 0.5 keV≲ mA'≲0.5 MeV. For ALPs, we show that CONUS100 can probe an unexplored region of parameter space at MeV masses, in particular through a→ e+e- decays of ALPs emitted in the deuteron line, assuming a energy window extended to 10 MeV.
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BibTeX
@misc{angel2026searching,
title = {{Searching for Dark Photons and ALPs using Gamma-rays from Nuclear Reactors}},
author = {Lucia Angel and Manfred Lindner and Farinaldo S. Queiroz and Bilge S. Solak},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.38745},
eprint = {2610.38745},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38745},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Searching for Dark Photons and ALPs using Gamma-rays from Nuclear Reactors
AU - Lucia Angel
AU - Manfred Lindner
AU - Farinaldo S. Queiroz
AU - Bilge S. Solak
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.38745
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38745
AB - 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 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≃1.65×10^−5 and 1.2×10^−5, respectively, for 0.5 keV≲ m_A'≲0.5 MeV. For ALPs, we show that CONUS100 can probe an unexplored region of parameter space at MeV masses, in particular through a→ e^+e^- decays of ALPs emitted in the deuteron line, assuming a energy window extended to 10 MeV.
ER -