Search

The improved results on a direct search for a new X ( 16.7 MeV ) boson that could explain the anomalous excess of e + e − pairs observed in the decays of the excited 8 Be ∗ nuclei (“Berillium or X17 anomaly”) are reported. Interestingly, new recent results in the nuclear transitions of another nucleus, 4 He , seems to support this anomaly spurring the need for an independent measurement. If the X boson exists, it could be produced in the bremsstrahlung reaction e − Z → e − Z X by a high energy beam of electrons incident on the active target in the NA64 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron and observed through its subsequent decay into e + e − pairs. No evidence for such decays was found from the combined analysis of the data samples with total statistics corresponding to 8.4 × 10 10 electrons on target collected in 2017 and 2018. This allows one to set new limits on the X − e − coupling in the range 1.2 × 10 − 4 ≲ e e ≲ 6.8 × 10 − 4 , excluding part of the parameter space favored by the X17 anomaly, and setting new bounds on the mixing strength of photons with dark photons ( A ′ ) with a mass ≲ 24 MeV . For the 2018 run, the setup was optimized to probe the region of parameter space characterized by a large coupling e . This allowed a significant improvement in sensitivity despite a relatively modest increase in statistics.