https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-026-02362-3
Review
Minicharged particles at accelerators: progress and prospects
1
Faculté Saint-Jean, University of Alberta, 8406 Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury, T6C 4G9, Edmonton, AB, Canada
2
Department of Physics, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, S4S 0A2, Regina, SK, Canada
3
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, 11335 Saskatchewan Drive NW, T6G 2E1, Edmonton, AB, Canada
4
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universitat de València, Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980, Paterna, Spain
a
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Received:
23
February
2026
Accepted:
27
April
2026
Published online:
10
May
2026
Abstract
Minicharged particles (mCPs), hypothetical free particles with effective electric charges much smaller than the elementary charge, e, offer a valuable probe of dark sectors and fundamental physics through several clear experimental signatures. Various models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict such particles, the existence of which could help elucidate the ongoing mysteries regarding electric charge quantization and the nature of dark matter. Moreover, a hypothetical scenario involving a small minicharged subcomponent of dark matter has recently been demonstrated as a viable explanation of the anomaly in the 21 cm hydrogen absorption signal reported by the EDGES collaboration. Although several decades of indirect observations and direct experimental searches for mCPs at particle accelerators have led to severe constraints, a substantial window of the mCP mass-mixing parameter space remains unexplored at the energy frontier accessible to current state-of-the-art accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Consequently, mCPs have remained topical over the years, and new experimental searches at accelerators have been gaining interest. In this article, we review the theoretical frameworks in which mCPs emerge and their phenomenological implications, the current direct and indirect constraints on mCPs, and the present state of the ongoing and upcoming searches for mCPs at particle accelerators.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
