Combined Evidence for the $X_{17}$ Boson After PADME Results on Resonant Production in Positron Annihilation

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Main Authors: Arias-Aragón, Fernando, di Cortona, Giovanni Grilli, Nardi, Enrico, Toni, Claudio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Arias-Aragón, Fernando
di Cortona, Giovanni Grilli
Nardi, Enrico
Toni, Claudio
author_facet Arias-Aragón, Fernando
di Cortona, Giovanni Grilli
Nardi, Enrico
Toni, Claudio
contents The Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati has reported an excess of $e^+e^-$ final-state events from positron annihilation on fixed-target atomic electrons. While the global significance remains at the $(1.77\pm 0.15)\,σ$ level, the excess is centered around $\sqrt{s} \sim 17\,\text{MeV}$, coinciding with the invariant mass at which anomalous $e^+e^-$ pair production has previously been observed in nuclear transitions from excited to ground states in $^8$Be, $^4$He and $^{12}$C, thereby strengthening the case for a common underlying origin, possibly involving a hypothetical new $X_{17}$ boson. We discuss the significance of this independent accelerator-based evidence. Combining it with existing nuclear physics results, we obtain a value for the $X_{17}$ mass of $m_{X_{17}} = 16.88 \pm 0.05\,\text{MeV}$, reducing the uncertainty from nuclear physics determinations by more than a factor of two, and mitigating the impact of poorly known correlations among their systematic errors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_11439
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Combined Evidence for the $X_{17}$ Boson After PADME Results on Resonant Production in Positron Annihilation
Arias-Aragón, Fernando
di Cortona, Giovanni Grilli
Nardi, Enrico
Toni, Claudio
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
Nuclear Theory
The Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati has reported an excess of $e^+e^-$ final-state events from positron annihilation on fixed-target atomic electrons. While the global significance remains at the $(1.77\pm 0.15)\,σ$ level, the excess is centered around $\sqrt{s} \sim 17\,\text{MeV}$, coinciding with the invariant mass at which anomalous $e^+e^-$ pair production has previously been observed in nuclear transitions from excited to ground states in $^8$Be, $^4$He and $^{12}$C, thereby strengthening the case for a common underlying origin, possibly involving a hypothetical new $X_{17}$ boson. We discuss the significance of this independent accelerator-based evidence. Combining it with existing nuclear physics results, we obtain a value for the $X_{17}$ mass of $m_{X_{17}} = 16.88 \pm 0.05\,\text{MeV}$, reducing the uncertainty from nuclear physics determinations by more than a factor of two, and mitigating the impact of poorly known correlations among their systematic errors.
title Combined Evidence for the $X_{17}$ Boson After PADME Results on Resonant Production in Positron Annihilation
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
Nuclear Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.11439