Search for axion like particles produced via the Primakoff process at COMPASS

Abstract Axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated candidates for dark matter and potential mediators to the dark sector. We present a search for ALPs coupled to photons, based on a reinterpretation of COMPASS data. Using the 2009 dataset consisting of $$190~\text {GeV}$$ 190 GeV $$\pi ^-$$ π - and $$\mu ^-$$ μ - beams impinging on a fixed nickel target, we investigate the Primakoff production of ALPs. Due to the high beam energy, ALPs in the MeV mass range are produced with a significant Lorentz boost, leading to strongly collimated decay photons. Consequently, these photons are not spatially resolved by the electromagnetic calorimeter and are instead reconstructed as a single merged cluster. This signature mimics the single-photon signal of Standard Model Primakoff Compton scattering, which was the primary focus of the original COMPASS analysis. By quantifying this potential ALP contamination in the Compton scattering sample, we derive exclusion limits on the ALP-photon coupling $$g_{a\gamma \gamma }$$ g a γ γ in the mass range $$0.2 \lesssim m_a \lesssim 600~\text {MeV}$$ 0.2 ≲ m a ≲ 600 MeV . Our results exclude couplings $$g_{a\gamma \gamma } > rsim 10^{-1}~\text {GeV}^{-1}$$ g a γ γ ≳ 10 - 1 GeV - 1 at 95% C.L., providing independent constraints on the parameter space that bridges beam dump experiments and high energy colliders. While current collider-based limits remain more stringent, this work establishes a novel reinterpretation framework and provides a baseline for future studies of resolved diphoton states in complementary kinematic regimes, such as Primakoff $$\pi ^0$$ π 0 production.