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Sensitivity of MAGIX@MESA to BSM effects via Bethe-Heitler pair production

Aleksandr Pustyntsev and Marc Vanderhaeghen

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 035034 – Published 24 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/bgx7-19gt

Abstract

We explore the sensitivity of the upcoming MAGIX experiment at the MESA facility to light Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) mediators in the few to hundred MeV mass range. Utilizing high-intensity electron beams of 55 MeV and 105 MeV on a heavy Ta181 target, we investigate the production of scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, and axial vector mediators via the Bethe-Heitler process. By optimizing the asymmetric kinematic acceptance of the double-spectrometer setup to enhance the signal over background ratio, we demonstrate that MAGIX can probe mediator-electron couplings down to O(10−4), offering a competitive probe of the dark sector in the sub-GeV mass range.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 035034– Published 24 August, 2026
  • Received 29 May 2026
  • Accepted 30 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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