Long-lived axion-like particles from electromagnetic cascades

Abstract: We study axion-like particles (ALPs) in beam dump experiments, focusing on the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP, at CERN) experiment and the Beam Dump eXperiment (BDX, at JLab). Many existing projections for sensitivity to ALPs in beam dump experiments have focused on production from either the primary proton/electron beam, or - in the case of SHiP - the secondary (high-energy) photons produced by neutral meson decays (e.g., $\pi^0\rightarrow\gamma \gamma$). In this work, we study the subsequent production of axions from the full electromagnetic shower in the target, finding order-of-magnitude enhancements in the visible decay yields across a wide range of axion masses. We update SHiP's sensitivity curve and provide new projections for BDX. Both experiments will be able to reach currently unexplored regions of ALP parameter space.