Speaker
Description
The Positronium system, a bound state of an electron and a positron, is
suitable for testing the predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED), since its
properties can be perturbatively calculated to high accuracy and is not affected
by finite size or QCD effects at the current experimental precision level. The
Ps triple state, the ortho-Positronium (o-Ps), which mainly decays to three
photons, is a well suited system to perform searches of new physics.
In particular, we propose to study the lifetime of the o-Ps state in search of a
new type of matter, the so-called Alice or Mirror Matter (MM). This new mat-
ter was originally proposed to restore parity violation in weak interactions, by
introducing a new hidden mirror sector where parity is violated in the opposite
way. These mirror partners would interact with Standard Model (SM) particles
mainly via gravitation, making them suitable candidates for Dark Matter.
In the o-Ps system, the photons from the decay would oscillate into their
mirror partners, leaving no signal in the detector. By performing a high precision
measurement of the o-Ps lifetime, the accuracy of the present QED calculations
can be tested. A discrepancy with the expectation from theory could indicate
the presence of Physics Beyond the SM, i.e. a signal for MM.
The search is conducted with the novel Positron-Electron Tomography (PET)
scanner at the Jagiellonian University. The J-PET is a high acceptance multi-
purpose detector optimized for the detection of photons from positron-electron
annihilation and can be used in a broad scope of interdisciplinary investigation,
e.g. medical imaging, fundamental symmetry test and quantum entanglement
studies with o-Ps, etc.
| speaker affiliation | Jagiellonian University |
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