English

Constraints on Light Self-Interacting Dark Matter from Plasmon-Enhanced Direct Detection

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-08-02 v1

Abstract

Models of light dark matter often invoke a light mediator to facilitate interactions with the Standard Model. If sufficiently light, this mediator can induce long-range self-interactions among dark matter particles, offering a compelling resolution to small-scale structure anomalies. However, direct detection of light self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) remains challenging for conventional detectors. In this work, we investigate the sensitivity of searches for light SIDM accelerated by high-energy cosmic rays in silicon detectors. Leveraging the electronic collective excitations, we derive 90\% C.L. exclusion limits using public SENSEI and DAMIC-M ionization data. Our constraints can cover a portion of the light SIDM parameter space favored by galactic small-scale anomalies.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2608.01305,
  title  = {Constraints on Light Self-Interacting Dark Matter from Plasmon-Enhanced Direct Detection},
  author = {Wen-Na Yang and Wu-Long Xu and Wenyu Wang and Ning Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.01305},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

7pages, 3 figures