Searching for millicharged particles with 1 kg of Skipper-CCDs using the NuMI beam at Fermilab

Abstract

Oscura is a planned light-dark matter search experiment using Skipper-CCDswith a total active mass of 10 kg. As part of the detector development, the collaborationplans to build the Oscura Integration Test (OIT), an engineering test with 10% of the totalmass. Here we discuss the early science opportunities with the OIT to search for millichargedparticles (mCPs) using the NuMI beam at Fermilab. mCPs would be produced at low energiesthrough photon-mediated processes from decays of scalar, pseudoscalar, and vector mesons,or direct Drell-Yan productions. Estimates show that the OIT would be a world-leadingprobe for mCPs in the ∼MeV mass range.