SHiP: a new facility with a dedicated detector to search for new long-lived neutral particles

SHIP is a new fixed target experiment whose Technical Proposal has been recently submitted to the CERN SPS Committee. In its initial phase, the 400 GeV proton beam extracted from the SPS will be dumped on a heavy target with the aim of integrating 2 × 1020 pot in 5 years. A dedicated detector, based on a long empty decay volume followed by a spectrometer and particle identi- fication detectors, will allow probing a variety of models with light long-lived exotic particles and masses below O(10) GeV/c2. The main focus will be the physics of the so-called Hidden Portals, i.e. search for Dark Photons, light scalars and pseudo-scalars, and Heavy Neutrinos. The sensitivity to Heavy Neutrinos will allow for the first time to probe, in the mass range between the kaon and the D meson mass, a coupling range for which Baryogenesis and active neutrino masses could also be explained. Direct detection of light and long-lived SUSY particles, such as RPV neutralinos and pseudo-Dirac gauginos could also be performed in an unexplored parameter range.