Hunting for a 17 MeV particle coupled to electrons

Abstract: We discuss a set of precision observables that can probe the existence of a light particle $X$ coupled to electrons in the mass range of 1--100 MeV. As a case study, we consider the recent excess of $e^+e^-$ final-state events at $\sqrt{s} = 16.9$ MeV reported by the PADME collaboration. Interestingly, this mass is tantalizingly close to the invariant mass at which anomalous $e^+e^-$ pair production has previously been observed in nuclear transitions from excited to ground states by the ATOMKI collaboration. For the scenario in which the new particle has a vector coupling to electrons, we show that the PADME excess is already in tension with constraints from the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and the non-observation of the exotic pion and muon decays $\pi^+\to e^+ \nu X$ and $\mu^+ \to e^+ \bar\nu_\mu\nu_e X$ at the SINDRUM experiment. Further improvements in the measurement of the electron $g$-2, together with upcoming results from the Mu3e and PIONEER experiments, are expected to definitively probe this scenario in the near future. We also explore alternative possibilities where the new particle has scalar, pseudoscalar, or axial-vector couplings.