Measuring the Reconstructed A' Acceptance of the Darkquest Electromagnetic Calorimeter

Abstract

The Darkquest experiment seeks to utilize the existing proton dump beam and detector array at Fermilab, along with the addition of an Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal), for a low cost but well suited way to search for dark matter candidates at energies in the MeV to GeV range. Darkquest will focus specficially on searching for long lived dark photons. We use simulation data to achieve three main goals as part of our preparation for the Darkquest project: Calibration of the EMCal, reconstruction of electron paths through the detectors, and most importantly, measuring the rate of geometric acceptance once the EMCal is added. We found that the reconstructed acceptance rates are in agreement with those predicted by theory for the bremsstrahlung emission production method, and slightly below predictions at low masses for the $\eta$ meson decay production method. These results support the idea that Darkquest will be able to effectively measure dark photon production at the proposed mass ranges.