Related papers: Accelerating the Discovery of Light Dark Matter
We consider a class of models in which thermal dark matter is lighter than an MeV. If dark matter thermalizes with the Standard Model below the temperature of neutrino-photon decoupling, equilibration and freeze-out cools and heats the…
In this paper, we introduce a novel program of fixed-target searches for thermal-origin Dark Matter (DM), which couples inelastically to the Standard Model. Since the DM only interacts by transitioning to a heavier state, freeze-out…
Direct detection experiments for light (sub-GeV) dark matter are making enormous leaps in reaching previously unexplored theory space. The need for accurate characterizations of target responses has led to a growing interplay between…
Any form of dark matter which was in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model in the early Universe must have some annihilation mechanism in order to avoid overclosure. In general, such models are now constrained by the negative…
We describe an approach to detect dark matter and other invisible particles with mass below a GeV, exploiting missing energy-momentum measurements and other kinematic features of fixed-target production. In the case of an invisibly decaying…
We summarize here our studies \cite{Chu:2022xuh,Chu:2023jyb,Chu:2024rrv} on two distinct scenarios for MeV-mass thermal dark matter freeze-out. First, we determine the minimal viable mass for dark matter below tens of MeV, considering…
We study a light thermal scalar dark matter (DM) model with a light scalar mediator mixed with the standard model Higgs boson, including both the theoretical bounds and the current experimental constraints. The thermal scalar DM with the…
The lack of new physics at the LHC so far weakens the argument for TeV scale thermal dark matter. On the other hand, heavier, non-thermal dark matter is generally difficult to test experimentally. Here we consider the interesting and…
Direct detection strategies are proposed for dark matter particles with MeV to GeV mass. In this largely unexplored mass range, dark matter scattering with electrons can cause single-electron ionization signals, which are detectable with…
Thermal dark matter is a compelling setup that has been probed by a multitude of experiments, mostly in the GeV-TeV mass range. The thermal paradigm in the sub-GeV range is about to experience the same experimental test with the next…
Dark matter may be a thermal relic whose abundance is set by mutual annihilations among multiple species. Traditionally, this coannihilation scenario has been applied to weak scale dark matter that is highly degenerate with other states. We…
Direct dark matter detection experiments search for rare signals induced by hypothetical, galactic dark matter particles in low-background detectors operated deep underground. I will briefly review the direct detection principles, the…
We revisit the possibility of light scalar dark matter, in the MeV to GeV mass bracket and coupled to electrons through fermion or vector mediators, in light of significant experimental and observational advances that probe new physics…
We study the phenomenology and detection prospects of a sub-GeV Dirac dark matter candidate with resonantly enhanced annihilations via a dark photon mediator. The model evades cosmological constraints on light thermal particles in the early…
The DAMIC-M collaboration recently reported impressive bounds on sub-GeV dark matter, robustly testing both thermal and non-thermal models for the very first time. In this work we derive novel bounds from the recent PandaX-4T ionization…
We examine the status of benchmark simplified dark matter models that have been proposed to explain the GeV gamma-ray Galactic Center excess. We constrain the available parameter space using updated observations from indirect detection,…
Identifying the nature of dark matter (DM) has long been a pressing question for particle physics. In the face of ever-more-powerful exclusions and null results from large-exposure searches for TeV-scale DM interacting with nuclei, a…
Motivated by recent cosmic ray experimental results there has been a proposition for a scenario where a secluded dark matter particle annihilates, primarily, into Standard Model leptons through a low mass mediator particle. We consider…
We propose a mechanism of elementary thermal dark matter with mass up to $10^{14}$ GeV, within a standard cosmological history, whose relic abundance is determined solely by its interactions with the Standard Model, without violating the…
A number of new balloon or space-based $\gamma$-ray observatories have been proposed to close a "MeV gap" in sensitivity to $\gamma$ rays in the MeV-GeV energy band. One aspect of the science case for these instruments is their ability to…