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The PADME experiment is designed to search for a hypothetical dark photon A' produced in positron-electron annihilation using a bunched positron beam at the Beam Test Facility of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati. The expected sensitivity to the A' -photon mixing parameter ϵ is 10-3, for A' mass ≤ 23.5 MeV/c 2 after collecting ∼ 1013 positrons-on-target. This paper presents the PADME detector status after commissioning in July 2019. In addition, the software algorithms employed to reconstruct physics objects, such as photons and charged particles, and the calibration procedures adopted are illustrated in detail. The results show that the experimental apparatus reaches the design performance, and is able to identify and measure standard electromagnetic processes, such as positron bremsstrahlung and electron-positron annihilation into two photons.

The PADME experiment at the DAΦNE Beam-Test Facility (BTF) is designed to search for the gauge boson of a new U(1) interaction in the process e + e − → γ+A , using the intense positron beam hitting a light target. The A , usually referred as dark photon, is assumed to decay into invisible particles of a secluded sector and it can be observed by searching for an anomalous peak in the spectrum of the missing mass measured in events with a single photon in the final state. The measurement requires the determination of the 4-momentum of the recoil photon, performed by a homogeneous, highly segmented BGO crystals calorimeter. A significant improvement of the missing mass resolution is possible using an active target capable to determine the average position of the positron bunch with a resolution of less than 1 mm. This report presents the performance of a real size (2x2cm 2 ) PADME active target made of a thin (50 µm) diamond sensor, with graphitic strips produced via laser irradiation on both sides. The measurements are based on data collected in a beam test at the BTF in November 2015.