Related papers: Constraints on Dark Matter-Electron Scattering fro…
Optically dense clouds in the interstellar medium composed predominantly of molecular hydrogen, known as molecular clouds, are sensitive to energy injection in the form of photon absorption, cosmic-ray scattering, and dark matter (DM)…
We show that the ionization of dense molecular clouds can be used to set strong constraints on dark matter models producing UV/X-ray photons in their annihilation or decay. We place robust and competitive constraints on various dark matter…
We present new observational constraints on the elastic scattering of dark matter with electrons for dark matter masses between 10 keV and 1 TeV. We consider scenarios in which the momentum-transfer cross section has a power-law dependence…
The density of cosmic rays inside molecular clouds determines the ionization rate in the dense cores where stars form. It is also one of the drivers of astrochemistry leading to the creation of complex molecules. Through Fermi Large Area…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…
Despite decades of direct and indirect searches within the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) framework, no conclusive results have been found in the GeV--TeV range. This has motivated exploring alternatives, including new particles…
We revisit dark matter (DM) capture in celestial objects, including the impact of multiple scattering, and obtain updated constraints on the DM-proton cross section using observations of white dwarfs. Considering a general form for the…
Molecular clouds act as targets for cosmic rays (CR), revealing their presence through either gamma-ray emission due to proton-proton interactions, and/or through the ionization level in the cloud, produced by the CR flux. The ionization…
Several observational lines of evidence imply that a fraction of the dark matter in the Galaxy may be comprised of small cold clouds of molecular hydrogen. Such objects are difficult to detect because of their small size and low…
Deuterium fractionation in molecular ions, in particular HCO+, has been extensively used to estimate the degree of ionization in molecular clouds. This paper reviews recent work on ionization degree in homogeneous clouds. We will show that…
Diffuse interstellar clouds show large abundances of H_3^+ which can be maintained only by a high ionization rate of H_2. Cosmic rays are the dominant ionization mechanism in this environment, so the large ionization rate implies a high…
Low-energy cosmic-rays (CRs) control the thermo-chemical state and the coupling between gas and magnetic fields in dense molecular clouds, the sites of star-formation. However, current estimates of the low-energy CR spectrum ($E \lesssim 1$…
The elastic scattering between dark matter particles and radiation represents an attractive possibility to solve a number of discrepancies between observations and standard cold dark matter predictions, as the induced collisional damping…
Sub-MeV cold dark-matter particles are unable to produce electronic recoil in conventional dark-matter direct detection experiments such as XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN above the detector threshold. The mechanism of boosted dark matter comes into…
The model is constructed of the propagation of gamma-ray burst radiation through a dense molecular cloud. The main processes of the interaction of the radiation with the interstellar gas are taken into account in the simulations: the…
We derive conservative upper limits on the dark-matter--nucleon scattering cross-section for sub-GeV mass dark matter. Working exclusively within the low-energy chiral effective theory, we derive bounds that are independent of the details…
Diatomic molecules (e.g., O$_2$) in intense laser field exhibit a peculiar suppressed ionization behavior compared to their companion atoms. Several physical models have been proposed to account for this suppression while no consensus has…
We revisit the WIMP-type dark matter scattering on electrons that results in atomic ionization, and can manifest itself in a variety of existing direct-detection experiments. Unlike the WIMP-nucleon scattering, where current experiments…
Dark matter is poorly constrained by direct detection experiments at masses below 1 MeV. This is an important target for the next generation of experiments, and several methods have been proposed to probe this mass range. One class of such…
Cosmic reionization and dark matter decay can impact observations of the cosmic microwave sky in a similar way. A simultaneous study of both effects is required to constrain unstable dark matter from cosmic microwave background…