  A new exclusion limit for the electromagnetic production of a light U(1)
gauge boson {\gamma}' decaying to e^+e^- was determined by the A1 Collaboration
at the Mainz Microtron. Such light gauge bosons appear in several extensions of
the standard model and are also discussed as candidates for the interaction of
dark matter with standard model matter. In electron scattering from a heavy
nucleus, the existing limits for a narrow state coupling to e^+e^- were reduced
by nearly an order of magnitude in the range of the lepton pair mass of 210
MeV/c^2 < m_e^+e^- < 300 MeV/c^2. This experiment demonstrates the potential of
high current and high resolution fixed target experiments for the search for
physics beyond the standard model.
