SIMULATION AND DATA ANALYSIS OF THE NA64 EXPERIMENT

The NA64 experiment's main objective is to search for unknown particles that may belong to a hypothetical "dark sector," such as dark photons or dark matter particles. They use a beam of electrons directed at a target to detect these unknown particles that would be produced in the collisions. Additionally, they investigate axions and axion-like particles and conduct further searches using different particle beams. The project report focuses on four fundamental areas: the reconstruction of incident particle momentum using the STRAW detector, the optimization of the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) geometry, the variable Chi2 cut based on ECAL energy, and the statistical analysis using the Combine program. They utilize Geant4, a particle event simulation platform, to study particle interactions with the detector, and ROOT, a data analysis library, for statistical analysis and adjustments. The project aims to enhance simulation and optimize analysis to gain a better understanding of the "dark sector" and explore new physics phenomena.