Daily Modulation Constraints on Light Dark Matter with DAMIC-M
Abstract
The flux of Hidden Sector particles from the Galactic halo reaching an underground detector can be significantly attenuated by interactions within the Earth for sufficiently large scattering crosssections. This attenuation gives rise to a characteristic daily modulation in the detection rate, due to Earth's rotation. We present results from a search for such a modulation using a 1.257 kg-day dataset collected with the DAMIC-M Low Background Chamber. A model-independent analysis reveals no significant modulation in the 1e- event rate over periods from 1 to 48 h, highlighting the excellent temporal stability of the detector. In a complementary model-dependent analysis, we target the expected daily modulation signature of Hidden Sector particles, with masses in the range [0.53,2] MeV/c2, interacting with electrons via a dark photon mediator. By leveraging the expected temporal evolution of the signal, we set improved constraints on Dark Matter masses below 1.2 MeV/c2, surpassing our previous limits.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.13962,
title = {Daily Modulation Constraints on Light Dark Matter with DAMIC-M},
author = {K. Aggarwal and I. Arnquist and N. Avalos and X. Bertou and N. Castello-Mor and C. Centeno-Lorca and A. E. Chavarria and J. Cuevas-Zepeda and A. Dastgheibi-Fard and C. De Dominicis and O. Deligny and J. Duarte-Campderros and E. Estrada and R. Gaior and E. -L. Gkougkousis and T. Hossbach and L. Iddir and B. J. Kavanagh and B. Kilminster and I. Lawson and A. Letessier-Selvon and H. Lin and P. Loaiza and A. Lopez-Virto and R. Lou and H. Lumengo-Kidimbu and K. J. McGuire and S. Munagavalasa and J. Noonan and 6 D. Norcini and S. Paul and P. Privitera and P. Robmann and B. Roach and D. Rosenmerkel and M. Settimo and R. Smida and M. Traina and R. Vilar and R. Yajur and D. Venegas-Vargas and C. Zhu and Y. Zhu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.13962},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PRD