1–5 Jun 2026
Paraninfo, University of Zaragoza
Europe/Madrid timezone

Contribution List

214 out of 214 displayed
  1. Igor García Irastorza (Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA) - Universidad de Zaragoza), María Luisa Sarsa (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)
    01/06/2026, 09:00
  2. Carlos Frenk (Durham University)
    01/06/2026, 09:30
    Oral presentation

    The ``Lambda cold dark matter'' (LCDM) cosmological model is one of
    the great achievements in Physics of the past thirty
    years. Theoretical predictions formulated in the 1980s turned out to
    agree remarkably well with measurements, performed decades later, of
    the galaxy distribution and the temperature structure of the cosmic
    microwave background radiation. Now a number of
    observations...

    Go to contribution page
  3. Isaac Tutusaus (ICE-CSIC/IEEC/IRAP)
    01/06/2026, 10:00
    Oral presentation

    Following its successful launch in July 2023 and the start of its scientific survey in February 2024, Euclid has become the first stage-IV photometric survey in operations. In addition to its photometric observations, Euclid is also conducting a spectroscopic survey, which allows us to add even more probes to a combined analysis from Euclid data alone. In this talk I will present the forecasts...

    Go to contribution page
  4. Marco CIRELLI (Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Énergies (LPTHE) - CNRS and Sorbonne U., Paris, France)
    01/06/2026, 10:30
    Oral presentation

    Almost a century after its discovery, Dark Matter has not been identified yet. Even worse, the candidates that were more promising a few years/decades ago, those that the community was betting to find “just around the corner", have not shown up in the ever-improving searches. Hence theorists have gone back to the drawing board and restarted exploring a wider range of possibilities. Many new...

    Go to contribution page
  5. Stefano Piacentini (GSSI && INFN LNGS)
    01/06/2026, 11:30
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    We present the status of the CYGNO experiment which is now focusing on the development of the new 0.4 m$^3$ underground demonstrator at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). CYGNO aims for the development of a large gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with optical readout, operated with a He:CF$_4$ gas mixture, for directional rare event searches such as neutrino and dark matter...

    Go to contribution page
  6. Jorge Terol Calvo (INFN Torino)
    01/06/2026, 11:30
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    The IceCube and ANTARES collaborations recently reported measurements of high-energy neutrinos from the galactic plane and galactic ridge. If cosmic rays scatter off dark matter particles at the galactic halo efficiently, a sizable high-energy neutrino flux may be produced. If we consider the deep inelastic scattering of cosmic rays with dark matter particles at the galactic ridge, we can...

    Go to contribution page
  7. Sven Heinemeyer (IFT (CSIC, Madrid))
    01/06/2026, 11:30
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    SUSY searches for electroweak (EW) particles at the LHC show consistent excesses between ATLAS and CMS in the channel $pp \to \tilde{\chi}_2^0 \tilde{\chi}_1^\pm \to \tilde{\chi}_1^0 Z^*\,\tilde{\chi}_1^0W^{\pm*}$.
    The preferred mass ranges are $m_{\tilde{\chi}_2^0} \sim m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^\pm}$ with $\Delta m := m_{\tilde{\chi}_2^0} - m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^0} \sim 15-20$ GeV. We show that these...

    Go to contribution page
  8. Lena Rathmann (KIT)
    01/06/2026, 11:50
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The origin of dark matter and the baryon asymmetry remains one of the central open problems in fundamental physics. Recent work has shown that lepton-flavored dark matter can naturally realize cogenesis of dark matter and baryons via conversion-driven freeze-out, where semi-efficient dark–visible conversions create a departure from equilibrium while thermalization of the dark sector erases any...

    Go to contribution page
  9. Satoshi Higashino (Kobe University)
    01/06/2026, 11:50
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The sensitivity of the direct dark matter search is being improved by various energy-sensitive experiments such as dual-phase liquid xenon detectors. In parallel, direction-sensitive dark matter searches are designed and taken place to reveal properties of the dark matter particle after its discovery or to explore beyond the neutrino fog. NEWAGE is one of the direction-sensitive WIMP search...

    Go to contribution page
  10. Kaliroe Pappas (Columbia University)
    01/06/2026, 11:50
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    The nature of dark matter is one of the great open questions in physics. The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) experiment is an Antarctic balloon mission optimized specifically for low energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) cosmic antinuclei as uniquely low-background signatures of dark matter. The secondary production of low-energy astrophysical antideuterons is strongly suppressed by the scarcity of...

    Go to contribution page
  11. Elias Lopez Asamar (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid)
    01/06/2026, 12:10
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    Atom interferometers are a type of quantum sensors that have been identified as a promising technology to conduct research in fundamental physics. At their core, these instruments feature an ensemble of atoms in a quantum superposition of their energy eigenstates, that represent a unique target to probe large unexplored areas of the dark matter parameter space.

    In this talk I will first...

    Go to contribution page
  12. Yi Chung (Institute for Basic Science)
    01/06/2026, 12:10
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The comparable abundances of dark matter and baryons, known as the dark matter–baryon coincidence, call for an explanation that connects the dark sector to the QCD sector. In this talk, I will present a detailed analysis showing why this coincidence is nontrivial and points toward a strongly coupled dark sector with $\mathcal{O}(1)$-GeV asymmetric dark baryons as dark matter. Based on this...

    Go to contribution page
  13. Adriana Bariego Quintana (KM3NeT IFIC (CSIC-UV))
    01/06/2026, 12:10
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    The method of indirect detection of Dark Matter (DM) in neutrino telescopes involves the observation of a Cherenkov light pattern produced by particles crossing the detector that originate from DM annihilation or decay. A signal of neutrinos produced by these processes is searched for in astrophysical targets such as the Galactic Centre or the Sun, where large amounts of DM are believed to...

    Go to contribution page
  14. Daniil Krichevskiy (University of Stavanger)
    01/06/2026, 12:30
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Strongly interacting dark sectors with pseudo–Nambu–Goldstone bosons provide a versatile framework for sub-GeV dark matter. While the original SIMP paradigm emphasises number-changing $3\to2$ processes as the origin of the relic abundance, the phenomenology of pionic dark matter is considerably richer. Depending on the spectrum and couplings, the relic density can instead be controlled by...

    Go to contribution page
  15. Jaume Zuriaga-Puig (IFT UAM-CSIC)
    01/06/2026, 12:30
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    Due to its proximity and high dark matter (DM) content, the Galactic Center (GC) is one of the preferred targets in the search for WIMP DM. Even in the absence of clear signals, GC observations can be used to set the best DM constraints. Despite the GC being a crowded region, rich in very diverse gamma-ray astrophysical emissions, thanks to both its expected flux and angular sensitivity, the...

    Go to contribution page
  16. Ben Broerman (Queen's University)
    01/06/2026, 12:30
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) collaboration is developing liquid-noble bubble chambers sensitive to sub-keV nuclear recoils to search for dark matter in the mass range from approximately 1-10 GeV$/c^2$. These detectors extend the excellent electron-recoil insensitivity inherent in Freon-based bubble chambers with the additional ability to veto higher energy neutron backgrounds based...

    Go to contribution page
  17. Valentina Biancaccci (GSSI, INFN)
    01/06/2026, 12:50
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The LEGEND Collaboration searches for the neutrinoless double beta (0$\nu\beta\beta$) decay of $^{76}$Ge using high-purity germanium detectors enriched in $^{76}$Ge and deployed within a radiopure liquid argon cryostat.
    LEGEND pursues a phased experimental program designed to probe 0$\nu\beta\beta$ decay with a discovery sensitivity in the half-life beyond $10^{28}$ years: LEGEND-200,...

    Go to contribution page
  18. Dr Alfonso Garcia-Soto (IFIC)
    01/06/2026, 12:50
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    The recently reported KM3-230213A neutrino event, observed with the KM3NeT/ARCA detector, represents the most energetic neutrino observed to date. It has stimulated significant interest in possible explanations of its origin, including those beyond conventional astrophysical scenarios. In this contribution, we investigate whether the event could originate from the decay of a heavy dark matter...

    Go to contribution page
  19. Mathias Becker (University of Padova)
    01/06/2026, 12:50
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    We present a new framework (ultra)light dark matter based on a scalar field experiencing boundaries in field space. These boundaries give rise to wallions, excitations whose masses are exponentially suppressed yet radiatively stable. After introducing the basic setup, we will discuss how wallions behave in the early universe, how field-space boundaries can form dynamically, and which probes...

    Go to contribution page
  20. Francesca Lecce
    01/06/2026, 13:10
    Astrophysical observations
    Oral presentation

    Axion-like particles (ALPs) coupled to nucleons can be efficiently produced in core-collapse supernovae (SNe) and then, if they couple to photons, convert into gamma rays in cosmic magnetic fields, generating short gamma-ray bursts. Though ALPs from a Galactic SN would induce an intense and easily detectable gamma-ray signal, such events are exceedingly rare. In contrast, a few SNe per year...

    Go to contribution page
  21. Iván Coarasa Casas (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)
    01/06/2026, 15:00
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI(Tl) Scintillators) experiment is intended to search for dark matter annual modulation with ultrapure NaI(Tl) scintillators in order to provide a model independent confirmation or refutation of the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA positive annual modulation signal in the low energy detection rate, using the same target and technique. Other experiments exclude the...

    Go to contribution page
  22. Halvor Melkild (University of Oslo)
    01/06/2026, 15:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The sterile neutrino is a well motivated Dark Matter candidate, but the minimal Dodelson-Widrow production mechanism has been experimentally excluded by searches for X-rays. We are presenting an extension, in which DM consists of sterile neutrinos which are charged under a broken $U(1)'$ symmetry. As long as one sterile neutrino is neutral under $U(1)'$, they will mix with the SM neutrino...

    Go to contribution page
  23. Antonio Circiello (Clemson University)
    01/06/2026, 15:00
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    Dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way are targets of great interest for searches of Dark Matter (DM) signatures with the Fermi-LAT. In the last decade the number of detected and putative dSphs has been rapidly increasing, allowing for some of the most stringent constraints to be put on models of annihilating DM in the GeV-TeV range. The most recent results even highlight...

    Go to contribution page
  24. Shyam Balaji (King's College London)
    01/06/2026, 15:20
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    In this talk, I will present recent work using MeV Galactic observations to search for dark matter. I will discuss how the long standing 511 keV gamma-ray line, recent 2 MeV in-flight annihilation excess, and anomalous Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) ionisation can be addressed within one model paradigm, "Excited Dark Matter". A brief overview for future experimental prospects will also be covered.

    Go to contribution page
  25. Cypris Plantier (Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC))
    01/06/2026, 15:20
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Among the crowd of dark matter candidates, light scalar (axions, ALPs, WIMPs …) and vector particles (dark photons) have been the focus of intense theoretical and experimental investigations over the past 15 years. However, those are always described as scalar or vector fields. Instead, we investigate their embedding as antisymmetric rank-three and rank-two tensor fields. By reconciling...

    Go to contribution page
  26. Gyunho Yu (Institute for Basic Science)
    01/06/2026, 15:20
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    COSINE-100 experiment, a direct dark matter search using NaI(Tl) crystal detectors at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in Korea, completed approximately six years of data taking in March 2023. During this time, COSINE-100 provided valuable insights into various dark matter interpretations such as validating DAMA/LIBRA, search for sub-GeV spin-dependent dark matter search, and exploring...

    Go to contribution page
  27. Adrian William Romero Jorge (Goethe Frankfurt University/FIAS)
    01/06/2026, 15:40
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    We investigate a dark sector coupled to the Standard Model (SM) via a kinetically mixed dark photon $U$ associated with an additional $U(1)'$ gauge symmetry. The kinetic mixing parameter $\varepsilon$ induces an effective coupling to the electromagnetic current, while interactions with a stable dark matter (DM) particle $\chi$ are governed by a dark gauge coupling $g_\chi$, spanning the...

    Go to contribution page
  28. Javier Rico (IFAE-BIST)
    01/06/2026, 15:40
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) remain a central benchmark for particle dark matter, with gamma-ray observations providing one of the most powerful probes of annihilation signals across a wide mass range. Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) constitute particularly robust targets due to their high dark matter content and low astrophysical foregrounds, enabling sensitive...

    Go to contribution page
  29. Claudia Tomei (INFN Sezione di Roma)
    01/06/2026, 15:40
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The SABRE experiment aims to deploy arrays of ultra-low-background NaI(Tl) crystals to carry out a model-independent search for dark matter through the annual modulation signature.
    SABRE will be a double-site experiment, consisting of two separate detectors in the two terrestrial hemispheres. The SABRE North detector will be installed underground at LNGS and will deploy an array of 9...

    Go to contribution page
  30. Álvaro Parra López (University of Oslo)
    01/06/2026, 16:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The persistent absence of non-gravitational dark matter signals has increased interest in candidates that interact extremely weakly with the Standard Model—if at all. (Non-perturbative) gravitational particle production provides an unavoidable mechanism for generating such dark matter via the expansion of spacetime. However, predicting the exact relic abundance is subject to significant...

    Go to contribution page
  31. Cristina Fernandez Suarez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) & Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT UAM-CSIC))
    01/06/2026, 16:00
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    In this talk, we summarize our research on stellar streams as a new and complementary target for dark matter (DM) searches with gamma rays.

    Stellar streams whose progenitor is a dwarf galaxy (dG) are particularly interesting targets for DM searches, since dGs are thought to be highly DM-dominated systems. We expect these streams to have lost most of their DM content during the stretching...

    Go to contribution page
  32. Leonie Einfalt (The University of Melbourne)
    01/06/2026, 16:00
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    SABRE is an international collaboration that will operate similar particle detectors in the Northern (SABRE North) and Southern Hemispheres (SABRE South). This innovative approach aims to distinguish potential dark matter signals from seasonal backgrounds: a pioneering strategy only feasible with a Southern Hemisphere experiment. SABRE South is located at the Stawell Underground Physics...

    Go to contribution page
  33. Júlia Mamprim (Universidade de São Paulo)
    01/06/2026, 16:20
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    The dark photon is a new hypothetical gauge boson arising in extensions of the Standard Model, and constitutes a compelling dark matter candidate. As dark photon dark matter (DPDM), it can interact with electromagnetic fields via kinetic mixing, and the inelastic scattering process γγ′ → e+e⁻ becomes kinematically allowed for gamma rays above a characteristic energy threshold. This interaction...

    Go to contribution page
  34. Xavier Ponce Diaz (University of Basek)
    01/06/2026, 16:20
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The non-trivial flavour structure of t-channel dark matter models with fermion couplings is unavoidably constrained by flavour physics, hinting towards the presence of an underlying flavour symmetry.
    In this talk, I present a systematic study of the low-energy flavour constraints affecting these models from the perspective of flavour symmetries, together with complementary bounds from...

    Go to contribution page
  35. Jinyoung Kim (Chung-Ang University / Center for underground physics, Institute for basic science (CUP, IBS))
    01/06/2026, 16:20
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The COSINE-100 experiment, situated at the Yangyang underground laboratory, utilizes NaI(Tl) detectors to search for WIMP dark matter and provide a direct, model-independent test of the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation claim.
    While previous model-independent analyses of the full six-year dataset found no evidence of annual modulation, excluding the DAMA/LIBRA signal at a significance greater...

    Go to contribution page
  36. Mustafa Amin (Rice University)
    01/06/2026, 17:10
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    Light post-inflationary axions are generically warm and noisy, leading to early, scale-dependent structure formation on observationally accessible scales. I will highlight results from a general, multi-species–friendly analytical framework, together with lattice numerical simulations, of such structure formation and its implications. In particular, the absence of both (1)...

    Go to contribution page
  37. Theresa Backes (Chalmers University of Technology)
    01/06/2026, 17:10
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Liquid xenon is an important target material in for the direct detection of light dark matter (DM) via electron recoils. Consequently, accurate modeling of the DM-electron interaction in this medium is crucial. In particular, a proper description of the electron final states plays a key role in modeling the electronic response of the detector. We follow a novel approach in which the final...

    Go to contribution page
  38. Mariano Cababie (TU Wien - Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics)
    01/06/2026, 17:10
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The upcoming COSINUS experiment will search for dark matter using cryogenic NaI calorimeters with dual-channel readout of the phonon and scintillation light signals. Its first goal is crosschecking the longstanding DAMA/LIBRA dark matter claim with a target exposure of 100kgd. Via the discrimination between nuclear recoil signals and electromagnetic background, COSINUS detectors achieve unique...

    Go to contribution page
  39. Philipp Schreiner (TU Wien, Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics)
    01/06/2026, 17:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Cryogenic scintillating calorimeters are particle detectors widely used in direct detection dark matter searches. They can measure the full, unquenched recoil energy of an interaction while simultaneously distinguishing nuclear recoils from electron recoils. This is achieved by detecting both the phonon signal and the scintillation light produced in a recoil event. Data analysis of these...

    Go to contribution page
  40. Mukesh Kumar Pandey (Department of Physics, Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan)
    01/06/2026, 17:30
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    This work presents a comprehensive theoretical investigation of dark matter (DM)–electron interactions using atomic response functions (ARFs), with a focus on Germanium and Xenon—two widely employed detectors in direct detection experiments. Accurately modeling these interactions is essential for interpreting and guiding searches for light dark matter candidates, particularly in scenarios...

    Go to contribution page
  41. Marco José Molina Pradillo (Universitat de València)
    01/06/2026, 17:30
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    The origin and evolution of cosmological magnetic fields remain open problems with potential implications for physics beyond the standard cosmological model. In particular, several dark matter scenarios predict non-trivial interactions with primordial magnetic fields, either modifying their initial spectrum or imprinting characteristic signatures during structure formation. Assessing whether...

    Go to contribution page
  42. andrea melchiorre (LNGS-INFN)
    01/06/2026, 17:50
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The quest to understand dark matter (DM) continues to be a driving force in astrophysics and particle physics. This talk discusses the potential of the RES-NOVA project, envisioned for detecting astrophysical neutrinos via Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CEvNS), to also serve as a DM observatory. Leveraging the array of cryogenic detectors made from archaeological Pb, known for...

    Go to contribution page
  43. Branden Aitken (University of Victoria)
    01/06/2026, 17:50
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The null results in direct detection motivate the exploration of a broader mass range for thermal relic dark matter (DM) candidates.  An intuitive new place to extend these models is to consider masses in the MeV to GeV range.  One way to do this and avoid bounds from the Cosmic Microwave Background is to introduce a dark sector consisting of a dark mediator and stable DM candidate.  

    In...

    Go to contribution page
  44. José Ricardo Correia (University of Oslo / Institute of Astrophysics)
    01/06/2026, 17:50
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    A promising dark matter candidate, which arises from a proposed solution to the strong CP problem is the pseudo scalar axion. If the PQ symmetry is broken after inflation, a network of cosmic strings forms and emits axions until the QCD phase transition, where a hybrid string-wall system forms and collapses. Characterizing both the evolution of the network and the emission of axions by the...

    Go to contribution page
  45. Dr Aditi Pradeep (SLAC)
    01/06/2026, 18:10
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    SuperCDMS SNOLAB is a cryogenic experiment projected to achieve world-leading sensitivity for dark matter masses below 10 GeV/c$^2$ using semiconductor crystal detectors. The experiment employs two detector types - iZIP detectors with combined phonon and charge readout providing excellent nuclear recoil/electron recoil discrimination, and HV detectors which amplify phonon energy proportional...

    Go to contribution page
  46. Tommaso Sassi (University of Padua, INFN Padua)
    01/06/2026, 18:10
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    Quantifying the imprints of freeze-in dark matter (DM) on cosmological structures requires the knowledge of its phase-space momentum distribution. We investigate how different cosmological histories before nucleosynthesis, what we refer to as “weather” of that epoch, give rise to distinct “seasons” in the DM momentum distribution that govern its warmness. Studying decay-driven production...

    Go to contribution page
  47. Marcos Flores (University of Oslo)
    01/06/2026, 18:10
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Unitarity imposes strict bounds on elastic and inelastic partial-wave cross sections. However, state-of-the-art calculations, motivated by dark-matter phenomenology, can exhibit substantial violations of partial-wave unitarity, with potentially significant consequences for phenomenological predictions.

    In this talk, I present a new, model-independent formalism that restores unitarity...

    Go to contribution page
  48. Miguel Sánchez-Conde (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid & IFT UAM-CSIC)
    02/06/2026, 09:00
    Oral presentation

    The nature of dark matter (DM) in the Universe remains one of the greatest mysteries of our time. Searches for annihilation or decay products of DM particle candidates such as WIMPs have already provided stringent constraints on their properties across a wide range of masses and interaction channels. In this review talk, I will summarize the current status of these ‘indirect’ DM searches in...

    Go to contribution page
  49. Pedro De la Torre Luque
    02/06/2026, 09:30
    Oral presentation

    Dark matter constitutes most of the matter content of the Universe, yet its particle nature remains unknown. Charged cosmic rays provide a powerful avenue to search for possible dark matter signatures through anomalous contributions to the observed fluxes of antimatter. In this talk, I will discuss the status of indirect dark matter searches across multiple cosmic-ray channels. After...

    Go to contribution page
  50. Juande Zornoza (IFIC (Univ. de Valencia - CSIC))
    02/06/2026, 10:00
    Oral presentation
  51. Cosmin ilie
    02/06/2026, 10:30
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming our view of the early universe, revealing a population of unexpected sources at cosmic dawn, including ultra-compact, dust free, extremely luminous “Blue Monsters” and the Balmer-break-dominated “Little Red Dots.” These discoveries, together with the growing evidence for massive black holes at very high redshift, highlight emerging tensions with...

    Go to contribution page
  52. Victoria Ankel (Stanford University)
    02/06/2026, 11:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    Dark Matter Radio 50L (DMRadio-50L) is an experiment designed to search for pre-inflationary axion dark matter in the mass range between 20 peV/$c^2$ and 20 neV/$c^2$, corresponding to Compton frequencies between 5 kHz and 5 MHz. This talk presents the current commissioning status of DMRadio-50L, focusing on the performance of the toroidal magnet, lumped-element resonator, and dc SQUID...

    Go to contribution page
  53. Xiaopeng Zhou (Beihang University)
    02/06/2026, 11:30
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The PandaX-4T experiment is a dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber operated at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL), shielded by approximately 2400 m of rock overburden. The detector contains 4 tonnes of liquid xenon, with a 3.7-tonne fiducial mass optimized for ultra-low background rare-event searches.

    Using commissioning and early science data, PandaX-4T has set...

    Go to contribution page
  54. Giovanni Volta (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik)
    02/06/2026, 11:30
    Astrophysical observations
    Oral presentation

    At IDM 2024, the XENON collaboration reported the first indication of nuclear recoils from solar $^{8}$B neutrinos via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) in the XENONnT detector, utilizing a total exposure of 3.51 t$\times$yr from the first two science runs. In this talk, I will present the results of a blind search for CE$\nu$NS using the third science run, which...

    Go to contribution page
  55. Debajit Bose (Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India)
    02/06/2026, 11:50
    Astrophysical observations
    Oral presentation

    The presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at high redshifts (z>5), as revealed by James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), challenges standard black hole (BH) formation scenarios. We propose a mechanism in which non-annihilating dark matter (DM) with non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model (SM) particles accumulates inside Population III (Pop III) stars, inducing their...

    Go to contribution page
  56. Guillermo Vera Díaz (CIEMAT)
    02/06/2026, 11:50
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter (IBDM) models provide a multi-component dark sector scenario in which a relativistic dark matter state can inelastically scatter off matter producing distinctive electron-recoil like signatures. Unlike canonical WIMP interactions, IBDM events are expected to deposit significantly higher energies and may exhibit two collimated tracks with vertex displacement,...

    Go to contribution page
  57. Samantha Lewis (Wellesley College)
    02/06/2026, 11:50
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The axion is a well-motivated dark matter candidate with a possible mass range spanning many orders of magnitude. Theoretical models have provided strong motivation to search for post-inflationary QCD axions, but this higher mass range is challenging to reach with traditional resonant cavity haloscopes. Among other limitations, scaling the resonant cavity to frequencies in the tens of GHz...

    Go to contribution page
  58. Yaiza Cano (Universidad de Alcalá de Henares)
    02/06/2026, 12:10
    Astrophysical observations
    Oral presentation

    In this paper, we consider three compact objects (HESS J1731-347, PSR-J1231, XTE J1814-338) with anomalous mass-radius relation to analyze the possibility of being dark matter admixed neutron stars. We try to infer the dark matter particle properties, under the assumption of behaving as a free Fermi gas. The main novelty relies on the use of a baryonic equation of state obtained from first...

    Go to contribution page
  59. Béla Majorovits (MPI für Physik), MADMAX Collaboration (MADMAX)
    02/06/2026, 12:10
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The MAgnetized Disk and Mirror Axion eXperiment (MADMAX) is an experiment aiming to detect dark matter axions from the galactic halo by resonant conversion to photons in a strong magnetic field. It uses a novel concept based on a stack of dielectric disks in front of a mirror, called booster, to enhance the potential signal from axion-photon conversion over a significant mass range. In its...

    Go to contribution page
  60. maxime pierre (Nikhef)
    02/06/2026, 12:10
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The XENONnT experiment is aiming for the direct detection of dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using a dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chamber. The detector, operated at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy, features a total liquid xenon mass of 8.5 tonnes, of which 5.9 tonnes are active. XENONnT has now successfully completed...

    Go to contribution page
  61. Jonathan Gosling (Imperial College London)
    02/06/2026, 12:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The axion is a particle which solves the strong CP problem and is a well-motivated candidate for dark matter. The Quantum Enhanced Particle Astrophysics (QuEPA) project at Imperial College London looks to detect axions with masses in the 124-248 µeV range (Compton frequencies 30-60 GHz). Towards this goal, a dielectric Fabry-Perot cavity has been developed to convert axions to microwave...

    Go to contribution page
  62. Jordan Koechler (INFN Turin)
    02/06/2026, 12:30
    Indirect detection
    Oral presentation

    Cosmic-ray antinuclei, in particular antideuterons ($\overline{\rm D}$) and antihelion-3 (${}^3\overline{\rm He}$), are among the most promising messengers for indirect dark matter (DM) searches. Their interest arises from the strong suppression of secondary production in cosmic-ray interactions with the interstellar medium at kinetic energies $K\sim 0.1–1$ GeV/n, where the expected...

    Go to contribution page
  63. Alberto Uson (University of Edinburgh)
    02/06/2026, 12:30
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a direct detection dark matter experiment that utilises a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) with 7 tonnes of active xenon at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The experiment is primarily designed to detect interactions from weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a well-motivated class of dark matter candidate. Following the...

    Go to contribution page
  64. David Díez Ibáñez (Laboratoire de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure (LPENS), París), David Díez Ibáñez (Laboratoire de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure (LPENS), París)
    02/06/2026, 12:50
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The search for axions has motivated a wide variety of experimental approaches exploiting the rich phenomenology of this hypothetical particle. Originally proposed as a solution to the strong CP problem in QCD, the axion is also a well-motivated dark matter candidate. The RADES collaboration aims to detect relic galactic axions using haloscopes through the Primakoff effect, whereby axions...

    Go to contribution page
  65. Francesca Scarcella (Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria)
    02/06/2026, 12:50

    Dark matter can form very steep density enhancements, or spikes, around black holes. Recent work has proposed that unusually rapid orbital‑period decay observed in two nearby black‑hole X‑ray binaries could be caused by such spikes. If confirmed in systems where current formation models do not predict them, this would imply far more widespread, dense dark‑matter structures than expected. We...

    Go to contribution page
  66. Vicente Pesudo Fortes (CIEMAT / LSC)
    02/06/2026, 12:50
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The DarkSide-20k experiment has been designed to lead the search for heavy WIMPs. It will consist of a 50 tonne dual-phase Ar TPC, surrounded by a 40 tonne LAr scintillator veto, both filled with underground Ar, strongly depleted in 39Ar. The outermost layer will be a muon veto, with 650 tonnes of atmospheric Ar. The experiment is in construction phase at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran...

    Go to contribution page
  67. Xiang Xiao (Sun Yat-sen University)
    02/06/2026, 13:10
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    PandaX (Particle and Astrophysical Xenon experiment), a large-scale liquid xenon dark matter detection project located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory, has provided a high-sensitivity experimental platform for dark matter and neutrino searches through the iterative development of three generations of detectors since its launch in 2009. To further enhance the sensitivity to these...

    Go to contribution page
  68. Giosuè Sardo Infirri
    02/06/2026, 13:10
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The search for axions, light and weakly interacting dark matter particles, is nowadays mostly exploited through photon coupling in the sub-meV region. In this range, only haloscopes have a sensitivity to test theoretically motivated axion models.
    (talk by Di Vora for the [last updates on the QUAX haloscope][1])

    Axions can also be exploited through coupling to fermions, but no experiment is...

    Go to contribution page
  69. Alex Droster (Stanford University/SLAC National Laboratory)
    02/06/2026, 15:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    In several proposed dark matter direct detection experiments, microwave photons in the THz/meV range are incident on a focal plane of detectors sensitive to single energy deposition events. Although various types of sensors have been proposed, none have yet demonstrated the ability to resolve single THz photon or meV phonon events across a wide bandwidth. The superconducting quasiparticle...

    Go to contribution page
  70. EUNG JIN CHUN (Korea Institute for Advanced Study)
    02/06/2026, 15:00
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    We propose a generic axion--driven cogenesis scenario in which both the baryon asymmetry and dark matter abundance originate from the kinetic misalignment. The framework unifies the Peccei--Quinn (PQ) mechanism with a Type--I seesaw sector, where Hubble--induced masses and higher-dimensional PQ--violating operators drive early--time axion rotation. Working within the DFSZ axion model augmented...

    Go to contribution page
  71. Daniel Díaz Mairena (CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas))
    02/06/2026, 15:00
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The DarkSide-20k experiment, under construction the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), has been designed to lead the search for heavy WIMPs. While liquid argon provides powerful pulse-shape discrimination, the intrinsic cosmogenic Ar-39 in atmospheric Ar (~0.96 Bq/kg) makes multi-tonne Ar TPC experiments for rare-event searches unfeasible.

    To address this, and following the...

    Go to contribution page
  72. SEUNGHAN LEE (POSTECH)
    02/06/2026, 15:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Graphene-based Josephson junction detectors are a promising platform for detecting low-energy events, leveraging graphene’s exceptionally low electron heat capacity, intrinsically weak electron–phonon coupling, and the strong temperature dependence of the junction switching current [1]. Recently, we proposed a new strategy for detecting ultra-light dark matter with masses as low as 0.1 keV...

    Go to contribution page
  73. Ellie Bishop (University of Edinburgh)
    02/06/2026, 15:20
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is the world’s most sensitive direct dark matter detector. It is located deep underground at the 4850 ft level at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. This is a quiet environment, strongly shielded from cosmic rays. LZ utilises 7 tonnes of liquid xenon in a time projection chamber as a target, primarily searching for weakly interacting massive...

    Go to contribution page
  74. Dr Karthik Ramanathan (Washington University in St. Louis)
    02/06/2026, 15:20
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The QUAntum LImited PHotons In the Dark Experiment (QUALIPHIDE) is primarily a search for hidden photon dark matter. Our far-infrared variant uses an array of single O(THz) photon counting Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors coupled to a metallic dish. The presence of on-and-off focus pixels allows for the construction of a data-driven background model and thus results in an experiment with...

    Go to contribution page
  75. Emanuela Celi (Northwestern University)
    02/06/2026, 15:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    When an ionizing particle interacts with the substrate of a superconducting qubit chip, it generates high-energy athermal phonons that propagate through the material, breaking Cooper pairs in the superconducting films and inducing quasiparticle poisoning. These non-equilibrium quasiparticles limit qubit coherence times and introduce correlated errors across large qubit arrays, posing a major...

    Go to contribution page
  76. Gaetano Fricano (University of Palermo, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, INFN)
    02/06/2026, 15:40
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) is a 112-ton liquid argon time projection chamber 110 m away from the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) target at Fermilab (Illinois, USA). The close location to the BNB origin makes the experiment sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) produced in the beam. Thanks to its advanced scintillation light detection system, a timing resolution at the...

    Go to contribution page
  77. Adam Softley-Brown (University of Sheffield)
    02/06/2026, 15:40
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    Liquid-xenon based dark matter experiments have rapidly increased in size and sensitivity in recent years. They are at the forefront of the search for dark matter interactions with nuclei for dark matter masses above a few GeV/c². XLZD is the next step for this technology and combines the strengths of the XENON, LUX-ZEPLIN and DARWIN collaborations to construct a definitive experiment that can...

    Go to contribution page
  78. Dr Jose María García Barceló (Universidad de Zaragoza)
    02/06/2026, 15:45
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The search for axions remains one of the most compelling frontiers in particle physics, offering a simultaneous solution to the strong CP problem and the nature of dark matter. Under the framework of the RADES collaboration, the DarkQuantum ERC Synergy Grant is spearheading a transformative approach to axion detection by integrating superconducting quantum technologies into haloscope...

    Go to contribution page
  79. Davide D'Angelo (INFN - Milano)
    02/06/2026, 16:00
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The direct detection of particle dark matter through nuclear recoils at the keV scale remains a primary objective of underground experiments worldwide. NaI(Tl) scintillators are of particular interest due to their long-standing role in the search for an annual modulation signal, as reported by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, which still lacks an independent...

    Go to contribution page
  80. Sylvie Pietrarota (La Sapienza Università di Roma, INFN Roma)
    02/06/2026, 16:00
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    CUPID-0 was a pilot experiment in scintillating cryogenic calorimetry designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. An array of 26 ZnSe crystals coupled to bolometric light detectors was operated continuously for two years. CUPID-0 demonstrated full $\alpha$ to $\beta/\gamma$ background discrimination, set the most stringent limit on the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{82}$Se,...

    Go to contribution page
  81. Kyung-Rae Woo (Institute for Basic Science in Korea)
    02/06/2026, 16:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Precision measurements of the tritium β-decay spectrum provide a powerful and model-independent probe of physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, keV-scale sterile neutrinos are well-motivated warm dark matter candidates that would induce a characteristic kink-like distortion in the β spectrum. Furthermore, generalized neutrino interactions (GNIs) within a dimension-6 effective field...

    Go to contribution page
  82. Daniel Baxter (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
    02/06/2026, 16:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Recent measurements have demonstrated that superconducting qubit decoherence is affected by radiation. As a result, many groups around the world are working to better understand the relationship between different types of radiation and qubit response. This crucial to quantum error correction because radiation can cause correlated loss of information across multiple qubits on a chip, defeating...

    Go to contribution page
  83. Jaime Apilluelo Allué (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)
    02/06/2026, 16:20
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The application of NaI and CsI scintillating crystals in dark matter searches suffers from limited sensitivity in the parameter space of WIMP searches despite their high light yield, simple detector design, availability of large-mass crystals, and interesting combination of different target nuclei. Main drawbacks are the high intrinsic background and the difficulty to lower the threshold below...

    Go to contribution page
  84. Anastasiia Shaikina (GSSI)
    02/06/2026, 16:20
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is the first tonne-scale experiment using cryogenic calorimeters. The detector is located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and consists of 988 TeO2 crystals operated in a dilution refrigerator at a base temperature of about 10 mK. Thanks to the large exposure, sharp energy resolution, segmented structure and...

    Go to contribution page
  85. Kristof Schmieden (University of Bonn)
    02/06/2026, 16:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    A new window to the universe was opened up with the detection of
    gravitational waves. While observations have been made at frequencies
    around hundreds of Herz, and evidence was found at nHz frequencies, the
    high frequency region is still unexplored experimentally. To change this
    the GravNet initiative was founded with the aim to setup a global
    network of high frequency gravitational wave...

    Go to contribution page
  86. Nuria Castello-Mor (IFCA (CSIC-UC))
    02/06/2026, 17:10

    The DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment is scheduled to begin operations at the Modane underground laboratory (LSM) in late 2026. This talk presents the current status of the project, highlighting recent results from its prototype—the Low-Background Chamber (LBC). Data from the LBC have been used to exclude theoretical benchmarks where hidden-sector particles make up the...

    Go to contribution page
  87. Sophia Hollick (Universidad de Zaragoza)
    02/06/2026, 17:10
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    ANAIS-112 is a dark matter direct detection experiment utilizing sodium-iodide scintillating crystal detectors which was mounted to search for the annual modulation signal expected from dark matter in the Galactic Halo. Located in Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain, the experiment has published results which are consistent with no modulation. This strategy, however, may be expanded to...

    Go to contribution page
  88. Robert Renz Marcelo Gregorio (Australian National University)
    02/06/2026, 17:10
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Radon remains one of the most limiting backgrounds in direct detection dark matter searches. Major collaborations have made substantial progress in radon detection and mitigation. However, much of the foundational data underpinning radon removal efficiency, material emanation rates, diffusion coefficients, and suppression performance remains experiment-specific. Measurements are often...

    Go to contribution page
  89. Alexander Kavner (University of Zurich)
    02/06/2026, 17:25
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Deep underground low-background laboratories are critical infrastructure for dark matter experiments and rare event physics searches. With real-estate in short supply, we are establishing a new underground laboratory in Tichinio, Switzerland. With 4000 meters water equivalent overburden, the Bedretto Lab has amongst the lowest cosmic ray fluxes in the world. The radiogenic backgrounds from...

    Go to contribution page
  90. Ansh Desai (University of Oregon)
    02/06/2026, 17:30

    SENSEI (Sub-Electron Noise Skipper Experimental Instrument) is the first experiment to implement the Skipper-CCD technology in particular to search for light dark matter.. These sensors have single electron resolution in millions of pixels, which when coupled with the small band gap of silicon enables these detectors to be uniquely sensitive to DM-electron scattering processes. SENSEI has...

    Go to contribution page
  91. Ana Quintana García
    02/06/2026, 17:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a next-generation axion helioscope designed to search for solar axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) with unprecedented sensitivity. The experiment combines a dedicated superconducting dipole magnet with precision X-ray optics and ultra-low background detectors. BabyIAXO will represent the initial stage of the project, serving both as a...

    Go to contribution page
  92. Silvia Scorza (LPSC - CNRS)
    02/06/2026, 17:40
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The Modane Underground Laboratory is the deepest tunnel-access underground laboratory in Europe. The experimental site is protected by a 4800 m.w.e. overburden that reduce the muon flux to 5 muons/m2/day, and is thus ideal for a wide range of applications requiring ultra-low radioactivity levels. I will present the evolution of this facility and of its science program in the domain of dark...

    Go to contribution page
  93. rocio vilar (IFCA)
    02/06/2026, 17:50

    DAMIC-M (DArk Matter in CCDs at Modane) is an ongoing direct detection dark matter (DM) experiment located at the Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM). The extremely low energy threshold of Skipper CCDs enables the exploration of previously inaccessible regions of the DM parameter space, particularly for MeV-scale particles interacting with electrons through a U(1) mediator.
    Construction of...

    Go to contribution page
  94. Francisco Rodríguez Candón (Universidad de Zaragoza)
    02/06/2026, 17:50
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    X-ray telescopes have become powerful tools in the search for weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), in particular QCD axions and axion-like particles (ALPs). Through the Primakoff effect, astrophysical magnetic fields can induce axion-photon conversion, giving X-ray observatories unique sensitivity over a broad axion-mass range. This talk reviews recent progress in ALPs searches with...

    Go to contribution page
  95. Ludovico Luzzi (University of California Davis)
    02/06/2026, 17:55
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The next generation of rare-event search experiments in underground laboratories requires a precise understanding of all background sources, including environmental γ-ray radiation within experimental halls.
    In this contribution, we present recent measurements of the environmental γ-ray flux at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS). A dedicated campaign has been carried out using a...

    Go to contribution page
  96. Alice Hamer (Boulby Underground Laboratory)
    02/06/2026, 18:10
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Boulby Underground Laboratory is the UK's deep underground science lab, located in the North East of England. Initially created to host dark matter direct detection experiments, the lab has since expanded into a multidisciplinary facility hosting a wide variety of projects, while continuing to maintain close connections with the dark matter community. As well as hosting a range of dark matter...

    Go to contribution page
  97. Hinata Takidera (Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo)
    02/06/2026, 18:10
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) can couple to photons, and many searches have been conducted utilizing the Primakoff effect, which induces axion-photon conversion under magnetic fields. Recently, novel experiments using the interaction between axions and laser photons without magnetic fields have been proposed and are currently underway. These experiments aim to search for ALPs directly...

    Go to contribution page
  98. Won Kyung Kim (University of Science & Technology (UST), IBS School)
    02/06/2026, 18:10

    We report new constraints on the spin-dependent (SD) dark matter (DM)-proton cross section using the COSINE-100 experiment at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory.
    By implementing a specialized event selection including Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) training, this analysis achieves a detection threshold of 3- and 4-pulse clusters corresponding to the few photoelectrons. This allows us to access...

    Go to contribution page
  99. Camilo Garcia Cely (IFIC (CSIC-UV))
    02/06/2026, 18:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    Axions are among the most compelling dark matter candidates, motivating the development of precision laboratory searches based on their coupling to photons. In this talk, I will discuss a polarimetric approach to axion dark matter detection using optical cavities, focusing on the birefringence induced by an oscillating axion background in laser polarization. Within this framework, axion dark...

    Go to contribution page
  100. Lex Millins
    02/06/2026, 18:30

    Many dark matter experiments are exploiting the Migdal effect, a rare atomic process, to improve sensitivity to low-mass WIMP-like dark matter candidates. Following the recent first observation of the Migdal effect in nuclear scattering [1] the characterisation of the effect and measurements of the cross-section in a range of elements is of great importance to the DM community. The MIGDAL...

    Go to contribution page
  101. Dr Liangliang Su (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT))
    02/06/2026, 18:50

    The electron ionization channel of the Migdal effect in dark matter-nucleus scattering has been shown to enhance sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time that lower energy electron excitations can also provide a novel and promising pathway, enabling detection of even lighter dark matter previously inaccessible to direct searches. Direct detection...

    Go to contribution page
  102. qian liu
    03/06/2026, 09:00
    Oral presentation
  103. Belina von Krosigk (Heidelberg University, Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics)
    03/06/2026, 09:30
    Oral presentation
  104. Roberto Santorelli (CIEMAT)
    03/06/2026, 10:00
    Oral presentation
  105. Richard Gaitskell (Brown University)
    03/06/2026, 10:30
    Oral presentation
  106. Alessandro Mirizzi
    03/06/2026, 11:30
    Oral presentation

    Stars have been recognized as optimal laboratories to probe axion properties. In the last decades there have been significant advances in this field due to a better modelling of stellar systems and accurate observational data. In this talk I review the current status of constraints on axions from stellar physics and present the future perspectives. The focus is i on the Sun, globular cluster...

    Go to contribution page
  107. Karl van Bibber (University of California Berkeley)
    03/06/2026, 12:00
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    A half a century after its prediction, the axion continues to elude either detection or exclusion owing both to its extraordinarily weak couplings and its still largely unconstrained mass. Inspired detection strategies and dramatic advances in technology, particularly in quantum sensing however provide optimism for discovery of the axion or axion-like particles within the next few years. ...

    Go to contribution page
  108. Aaron Chou (Fermilab)
    03/06/2026, 12:30
    Oral presentation
  109. Florian Kühnel (Max Planck Institute for Physics)
    03/06/2026, 13:00
    Oral presentation
  110. Dr Lachlan Milligan (University of Birmingham)
    03/06/2026, 15:00

    DarkSPHERE is a next generation spherical proportional counter to explore light dark matter candidates in the 0.05 - 10 GeV mass range. To maximise radiopurity, the detector is planned to be fully electroformed underground at the Boulby Underground Laboratory. This approach opens up the potential to achieve sensitivity reaching the neutrino fog in the 1 GeV region. In this talk, current...

    Go to contribution page
  111. Dimitrios Papoulias (University of Hamburg)
    03/06/2026, 15:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Sub-GeV dark matter interacting with the Standard Model through vector mediators is well motivated but remains challenging for conventional direct detection experiments. We study the sensitivity of future coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering experiments at spallation neutron sources to light dark matter produced in neutral pion decays. We consider scalar dark matter interacting through...

    Go to contribution page
  112. Juliette Blé (LPSC - Grenoble)
    03/06/2026, 15:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The search for dark matter has broadened to include low-mass candidates, motivating the development of detectors with extremely high sensitivities and low energy thresholds. The TESSERACT (Transition Edge Sensors with Sub-eV Resolution And Cryogenic Targets) experiment is designed to meet this challenge by deploying ultra-low-threshold cryogenic detectors combined with multiple target...

    Go to contribution page
  113. Anna Bertolini (Heidelberg University)
    03/06/2026, 15:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The low-mass region of the dark matter (DM) parameter space remains largely unexplored, as detecting Light Dark Matter (LDM) requires both nuclear recoil thresholds below 100 eV and an approach capable of large exposures. The Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter (DELight) aims to address this challenge by using superfluid helium-4 as a target material, exploiting its low nuclear...

    Go to contribution page
  114. Helena Kolesova (University of Stavanger)
    03/06/2026, 15:20
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Direct detection experiments traditionally search for nuclear recoils induced by coherent elastic scattering of halo dark matter particles. This mechanism, however, becomes inefficient for sub-GeV dark matter unless the particles are boosted by astrophysical processes or some other mechanism. In this contribution, we point out that accelerated dark matter interacts with nuclei not only via...

    Go to contribution page
  115. Guillaume Giroux (Queen's University)
    03/06/2026, 15:20

    The NEWS-G experiment searches for low-mass dark matter using spherical proportional counters (SPCs), a detector technology combining ultra-low energy thresholds with scalable target masses. In an SPC, ionization produced by particle interactions in a gaseous target drifts toward a central high-voltage anode, where amplification in a strong radial electric field allows for the detection of...

    Go to contribution page
  116. Manuel Meyer (University of Southern Denmark)
    03/06/2026, 15:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Cryogenic transition edge sensors (TESs) are single photon detectors featuring excellent energy resolution below 10% and high quantum efficiency at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. If black-body backgrounds can be suppressed to sufficiently low levels, such detectors would be ideally suited for experiments searching for photon-axion conversion at these wavelengths such as...

    Go to contribution page
  117. Álvaro Ezquerro Sastre (Universidad de Zaragoza)
    03/06/2026, 15:40

    The TREX-DM experiment is a high-pressure gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC), located at Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC, 2500 m.w.e.), conceived to search for low-mass WIMPs (m < 10 GeV/c2) using novel radiopure Micromegas detectors. In order to be competitive in this low-mass region, TREX-DM faces the challenges of very low background level (order 1 c/keV/day/kg), low energy...

    Go to contribution page
  118. Michela Sestu (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Sezione di Cagliari)
    03/06/2026, 15:40
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Beyond the primary objective of discovering dark matter, direct detection experiments are rapidly emerging as highly effective tools for the study of neutrinos, acting as competitive probes of low-energy interactions with both nuclei and electrons. The XENONnT and PandaX-4T collaborations have recently reported the first evidence of coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEνNS) from...

    Go to contribution page
  119. Aviv Simchony (Stanford)
    03/06/2026, 15:45
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The SuperCDMS HVeV program is an ongoing R&D effort to develop low energy threshold detectors for low-mass (sub-GeV) dark matter searches. The program focuses on gram-scale detectors, with the joint goals of probing new parameter space, and improving our understanding of phonon dynamics and low energy backgrounds in these detectors to inform the next generation of larger scale detectors. These...

    Go to contribution page
  120. Lutz Ziegele (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)
    03/06/2026, 16:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    In collaboration between the Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches (COSINUS)—a dual-channel dark-matter direct-detection experiment employing sodium iodide (NaI) as target material—and the Observatory for Neutrino and Dark Matter Electron Scattering (OνDES) project, we developed a cryogenic scintillating calorimeter that enables...

    Go to contribution page
  121. Dr Ying-Ting Lin (University of Münster, Institute for Nuclear physics)
    03/06/2026, 16:00

    The XENONnT experiment utilizes a dual‑phase liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber (TPC) to search for dark matter and other rare events. In addition to its primary nuclear-recoil (NR) search channel, XENONnT has achieved unprecedentedly low background rates in the electron-recoil (ER) channel. With extensive mitigation and active reduction efforts, the dominant ER background from radon...

    Go to contribution page
  122. Jose Manuel Alarcón (Universidad de Alcalá)
    03/06/2026, 16:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The scalar coupling of the nucleon is a crucial quantity in theoretical studies of direct detection of dark matter. The expected event rates in these analyses are very sensitive to these hadronic matrix elements and an accurate determination is necessary in order to interpret the experimental results and constrain the different dark matter models. In this talk, I will show the current...

    Go to contribution page
  123. Oleg Lebedev (University of Helsinki)
    03/06/2026, 16:20
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    I review the concept of dark matter freeze-in at stronger coupling. It assumes that the Standard Model (SM) bath temperature has never been high, which allows for a significant coupling between dark matter and the SM, without thermalization. As a result, this class of freeze-in models can be probed via direct DM detection and at colliders. The framework also allows for observable warm dark...

    Go to contribution page
  124. Francesco Toschi (Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Heidelberg Universität)
    03/06/2026, 16:20

    The Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter (DELight) aims at combining the scalability of noble liquid detectors, currently setting the strongest limits on heavy Dark Matter (DM) candidates, and the low energy threshold of solid state detectors, with energy resolutions of the order of 1 eV. These properties are combined with an increased recoil signal coming from the choice of a very...

    Go to contribution page
  125. Daniel Baxter (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
    04/06/2026, 09:00
    Oral presentation
  126. David Cerdeño (IFT-UAM/CSIC)
    04/06/2026, 09:30
    Oral presentation
  127. Jocelyn Monroe (Oxford University)
    04/06/2026, 10:00
    Oral presentation
  128. Dionysios Theodosopoulos (The University of Texas at Austin)
    04/06/2026, 10:30
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    Paleo-detectors provide a novel experimental technique to search for dark matter (DM), with experimental efforts now funded by the NSF in the US as well as the Moore Foundation. In lieu of the conventional approach of operating a tonne-scale real-time detector to search for DM-induced nuclear recoils, paleo-detectors take advantage of small samples of naturally occurring rocks on Earth that...

    Go to contribution page
  129. Teresa Marrodan Undagoitia (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik)
    04/06/2026, 11:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Thanks to its excellent properties, xenon is widely used as a target material in dark matter and rare-event search experiments. Ultraviolet scintillation has long been recognized as the primary signal channel in xenon-based detectors and its properties have been well studied.
    However, xenon also emits infrared light, a component which has received very little attention so far. Taking...

    Go to contribution page
  130. Laura Lopez Honorez
    04/06/2026, 11:30
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    Non-cold dark-matter particles can arise from the evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs). In this talk, I'll discuss how memory-burden effect, that delays the full evaporation of black holes, affects the Lyman-α bound on such non-cold dark-matter particles. In the latter framework, PBH evaporation generically leads to two distinct dark-
    matter populations with different velocity...

    Go to contribution page
  131. Richard Jacobsson (CERN)
    04/06/2026, 11:30
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    The SHiP/NA67 experiment is a general-purpose intensity-frontier experiment for the search for feebly interacting and long-lived GeV-scale particles and to perform neutrino physics measurements at the HI-ECN3 (high-intensity) beam facility at the CERN SPS, operated in beam-dump mode, taking full advantage of the available $4\times 10^{19}$ protons per year at 400 GeV. The Collaboration is now...

    Go to contribution page
  132. Patrick Knights (University of Birmingham)
    04/06/2026, 11:45
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    While many current world-leading experiments utilise dual-phase noble element time projection chambers (TPC) to perform direct dark matter searches, a potential alternative that may be simpler and easier to scale-up is a single-phase TPC. However, achieving similar background discrimination and event localisation capabilities as current experiments is made challenging due to the requirement of...

    Go to contribution page
  133. Ansh Desai (University of Oregon)
    04/06/2026, 11:50
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    The FASER experiment at the LHC is designed to search for light, weakly-coupled new particles as probes of dark sector physics. The experiment has been running since 2022, and has collected nearly 200/fb of pp collision data. FASER has new results from a search for long-lived dark photons and long-lived axion-like-particles (also interpreted in several other scenarios). This talk will present...

    Go to contribution page
  134. Isac Barranco Llorca (Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València)
    04/06/2026, 11:50
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    Galaxy clusters are powerful cosmological probes and play a central role in constraining the properties of dark matter through their mass function and abundance evolution. However, cluster mass estimates derived from intra-cluster medium observations typically assume hydrostatic equilibrium, introducing a systematic bias that propagates into cosmological and dark matter constraints. This bias...

    Go to contribution page
  135. Dr Pedro Costa e Silva (Astrocent / CAMK PAN)
    04/06/2026, 12:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    In this work we report the initial results of the first ultra-cold argon gas Time Projection Chamber (Ar-TPC) demonstrator developed at Astrocent, instrumenting both primary (S1) and secondary (S2) scintillation signals using a single optical readout plane, blind to Ar scintillation. This milestone represents a significant step forward in the development of compact, high-performance Ar-TPC...

    Go to contribution page
  136. Dr Alejandra Aguirre-Santaella (Universitat de València)
    04/06/2026, 12:10
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    A number of studies assert that dark matter (DM) subhaloes without a baryonic counterpart and with an inner cusp always survive no matter the strength of the tidal force they undergo.
    In this work, we perform a suite of numerical simulations specifically designed to analyse the evolution of the circular velocity peaks ($V_\mathrm{max}$, and its radial value $r_\mathrm{max}$) of low-mass DM...

    Go to contribution page
  137. Youngjoon Kwon (Yonsei University)
    04/06/2026, 12:10
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    The Belle and Belle II experiment have collected samples of $e^+e^-$ collision data at center-of-mass energies near the $\Upsilon(nS)$ resonances. These data have constrained kinematics and low multiplicity, which allow searches for dark sector particles in the mass range from a few MeV to 10 GeV. We present new searches in a $600~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ sample collected by Belle II, including...

    Go to contribution page
  138. Hannah Danhel (ÖAW)
    04/06/2026, 12:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The impact of time resolution on achievable sensitivity across different generation rates has been investigated for direct light dark matter searches using deep sub-electron noise silicon detectors. In relevant experiments --- most prevalent using Skipper CCD or RNDR-DEPFETs --- the effective exclusion parameter space is predominantly limited by mass, exposure and background. A faster readout...

    Go to contribution page
  139. Momchil Naydenov (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski")
    04/06/2026, 12:30
    Axion/Sterile
    Oral presentation

    We study the tidal disruption of axion miniclusters (AMCs) due to gravitational interactions with stars in the Milky Way. Axion miniclusters are compact objects composed of QCD axions, formed around matter–radiation equality, with masses in the range $10^{-16}$-$10^{-10}\,M_\odot$. Stellar encounters can tidally disrupt these structures, potentially generating streams of axions.

    Using Monte...

    Go to contribution page
  140. Alasdair McLean (Adelaide University)
    04/06/2026, 12:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Directional Dark Matter (DM) detection using low pressure gaseous Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) is regarded as a promising approach for confidently probing parameter space below the neutrino fog. The use of Negative Ion Drift (NID) gases in these detectors, such as SF₆, substantially suppress charge diffusion during the drift phase to aid particle track reconstruction. However, achieving...

    Go to contribution page
  141. Craig Group (University of Virginia)
    04/06/2026, 12:30
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    The constituents of dark matter are still unknown, and the viable possibilities span a very large mass range. Specific scenarios for the origin of dark matter sharpen the focus on a narrower range of masses: the natural scenario where dark matter originates from thermal contact with familiar matter in the early Universe requires the DM mass to lie within about an MeV to 100 TeV. Considerable...

    Go to contribution page
  142. Jianyang Qi (Stockholm University)
    04/06/2026, 12:45
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Axions provide an elegant solution to the strong CP problem and serve as a strong dark matter candidate. Recent cosmological simulations of post-inflationary scenarios indicate a preference for dark matter axions in the high-mass region above 10 GHz. To effectively probe this regime, plasma haloscopes utilize a tunable periodic metal wire array, a methodology driving the international ALPHA...

    Go to contribution page
  143. Sergio Sevillano Muñoz (University of Pennsylvania)
    04/06/2026, 12:50
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    The primordial power spectrum of matter density perturbations contains highly valuable information about new fundamental physics, in particular cosmological inflation, but is only very weakly constrained observationally for small cosmological scales k ≳ 3 Mpc^−1. In this talk, I will show how the formation of ultracompact minihalos in the early universe can help place significant constraints...

    Go to contribution page
  144. Angus Macdonald (University of Nottingham)
    04/06/2026, 12:50
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    Ultra-light scalar fields may explain the nature of the dark matter in our universe. If such scalars couple quadratically to particles of the Standard Model the scalar acquires an effective mass which depends on the local matter energy density. The changing mass causes the field to deviate from its cosmological value in experimental environments. We show that the presence of a local...

    Go to contribution page
  145. Brenda Cervantes (Fermilab)
    04/06/2026, 13:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    A promising approach to explore dark sectors, complementary to traditional accelerator-based searches, is the search for feebly interacting particles produced in high-energy interactions at accelerator facilities. Millicharged particles (mCPs), hypothetical particles carrying a small fractional electric charge, provide a well-motivated benchmark for such searches. Arising naturally in...

    Go to contribution page
  146. Torsten Bringmann (University of Oslo)
    04/06/2026, 13:10
    Cosmology DM
    Oral presentation

    A strong first-order phase transition offers the intriguing possibility of explaining the stochastic gravitational wave background at nHz frequencies. In order to avoid cosmological constraints, such a phase transition must have occurred in a dark sector with non-negligible couplings to the standard model - opening promising avenues of
    connecting the gravitational wave signal to the...

    Go to contribution page
  147. David Alonso-González (IFT (UAM-CSIC))
    04/06/2026, 13:10
    Light Dark Matter
    Oral presentation

    Core-collapse supernovae can produce light, weakly interacting particles with MeV-scale masses, such as light dark matter or axion-like particles. After escaping the supernova core with semi-relativistic velocities, these particles propagate through the Galaxy and may reach Earth long after the explosion. Since they propagate with a spread in velocities, the particles from a single supernova...

    Go to contribution page
  148. Michael A. Fedderke (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)
    04/06/2026, 15:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    Compact supermassive dark-matter (DM) states act as gravitational lenses. Widely spatially separated space-based gamma-ray detectors would observe geometrical parallax of such an intervening lens with respect to cosmologically distant gamma-ray bursts (GRB). This parallax can be of order the Einstein angle of the lens, resulting in a significant differential magnification of the source as...

    Go to contribution page
  149. Ferdos Dastgiri (University College London)
    04/06/2026, 15:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    In this talk I will outline the unique challenges of scaling up, and efforts we are exploring to push down background of the next-generation xenon dark matter direct-detection experiment, XLZD. The detector is envisioned as a 60-80 tonne active liquid xenon time projection chamber and rare event observatory, building upon the expertise of the XENON, LZ, and DARWIN collaborations with...

    Go to contribution page
  150. Francesca Pucci (LNGS)
    04/06/2026, 15:00

    CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) is a direct-detection experiment that searches for dark matter through elastic scattering off nuclei in cryogenic calorimeters operated at temperatures of about 15 mK. Thanks to energy thresholds of O(10 eV), CRESST achieves sensitivity to dark matter in the sub-GeV mass range, reaching unprecedented performance in this...

    Go to contribution page
  151. Emanuele Angelino (University of Chicago)
    04/06/2026, 15:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The Neutron Veto of the XENONnT experiment is a Gd-loaded water Cherenkov detector designed to tag radiogenic neutrons from detector materials, a primary source of nuclear recoil backgrounds in the WIMP search. It consists of a water volume surrounding the cryostat, enclosed by reflective ePTFE panels to enhance light collection and instrumented with 120 8-inch PMTs.
    After the first science...

    Go to contribution page
  152. Giorgio Del Castello (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy))
    04/06/2026, 15:20

    BULLKID-DM is a new experiment designed to search for low-mass WIMP-like dark matter particles (1~GeV/c$^2$ or below) with nucleon cross-sections below 10$^{-41}$~cm$^2$. The detector consists of an 800~g array of over 2000 silicon dice, each acting as a particle absorber instrumented with multiplexed Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs). Background rejection is achieved through a fully active...

    Go to contribution page
  153. Leonardo Badurina (Caltech)
    04/06/2026, 15:20
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    In this talk, I will present two novel theoretical ideas to search for dark matter (DM) across qualitatively distinct regions of model space with a genuine quantum sensing technique: matter-wave interferometry. I will begin by presenting new theoretical work establishing the in-in (Schwinger-Keldysh) formalism as the natural language for matter-wave interferometry, e.g., demonstrating how it...

    Go to contribution page
  154. Julian Guerrero Canovas (CIEMAT)
    04/06/2026, 15:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The study of ($\alpha,n$) reactions is becoming increasingly important for the rare-event search community. Alpha particles originating from uranium and thorium decay chains can interact with detector materials, producing neutrons that may induce nuclear recoils in the region of interest for direct dark matter searches, thereby generating a background indistinguishable from a WIMP signal.

    A...

    Go to contribution page
  155. John Carlton (DESY)
    04/06/2026, 15:40
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    The development of high-precision quantum sensors is an exciting prospect for all branches of science and metrology. Chief among these are their applications in astroparticle phenomenology from detection of gravitational waves to illuminating the nature of dark matter. Studies naturally concentrate on the simplest models of new physics phenomena - scalar fields with linear couplings in the...

    Go to contribution page
  156. Daniel McKinsey (University of California, Berkeley)
    04/06/2026, 15:40

    The TESSERACT project will search for sub-GeV dark matter via multiple complementary advanced, ultra-sensitive phonon detectors, sensitive to nuclear-type, electron-type, and dark photon-type DM interactions, using three detector technologies: superfluid helium (HeRALD), polar crystals (GaAs and sapphire, SPICE), and germanium/silicon bolometers. Those detectors will share Transition Edge...

    Go to contribution page
  157. Melba D'Astolfo (Gran Sasso Science Institute)
    04/06/2026, 15:45
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    A precise characterization of the environmental neutron spectrum in underground laboratories is crucial for designing future large-scale detectors and improving background modelling in rare-event searches. While fast neutrons already pose a significant background, thermal neutrons are expected to gain importance due to neutron-induced activation of detector materials. Previous flux estimates...

    Go to contribution page
  158. Prof. Yuehuan Wei (Sun Yat-sen University)
    04/06/2026, 16:00
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    PandaX is a direct detection dark matter and neutrino experiment located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL). It utilizes liquid xenon technology to search for dark matter particles and study neutrino physics. Neutron- and gamma-induced backgrounds can be mitigated using an external veto detector. In this presentation, I will introduce the performance of a water Cherenkov veto...

    Go to contribution page
  159. Pablo Figueroa (Instituto de Física Corpuscular, UV-CSIC)
    04/06/2026, 16:00
    Theory & pheno
    Oral presentation

    We consider a QCD-like theory with two light flavours, in which the DM candidate is a dark neutron. In this scenario, a non-vanishing theta angle triggers velocity-dependent self-interactions with dark pions acting as light mediators. By further considering a dark photon portal to the SM, direct-detection experiments probe CP violation via magnetic- and electric- dipole-mediated scatterings...

    Go to contribution page
  160. Kyle Kennard (Northwestern University)
    04/06/2026, 16:00

    The SuperCDMS-HVeV (High-Voltage with eV resolution) program is an
    R&D project focused on developing detectors with low energy resolution to search for low-mass dark matter (≲ 1 GeV/c^2), study charge-transport in cryogenically cooled crystals, and probe unclassified backgrounds at low energy. The program utilizes gram-scale silicon detectors instrumented with TES (transition-edge...

    Go to contribution page
  161. Maximo David Ave Pernas (Gran Sasso Science Institute)
    04/06/2026, 16:15
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The Recoil Directionality project (ReD) within the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration characterized the response of a liquid argon (LAr) dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to neutron-induced nuclear recoils, to measure the charge yield Qy at low-energy. The charge yield is a critical parameter for the experiments searching for dark matter in the form of low-mass WIMPs and...

    Go to contribution page
  162. Dounia Helis (INFN-LNGS)
    04/06/2026, 16:20

    The DAREDEVIL (DARk-mattEr-DEVIces-for-Low-energy-detection) project aims to develop a new generation of detectors to search for dark matter candidates with masses below 1 GeV/c². The detection strategy relies on dark matter–electron scattering, where the excitation energy of electrons must match the momentum transferred in the interaction. Therefore, materials with very small energy gaps (of...

    Go to contribution page
  163. Ruben Coronel (Stanford University)
    04/06/2026, 16:30
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment operates a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with a 7-tonne active mass, which detects both scintillation photons (S1) and ionization electrons (S2) from particle interactions. LZ has recently placed world-leading limits on dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections for masses down to 5 GeV/$c^2$ and reported 4.5𝜎 evidence of coherent elastic...

    Go to contribution page
  164. Zirui Wang (Fudan University (CN))
    05/06/2026, 09:30
    Oral presentation

    This talk reviews and summarizes the latest dark matter searches at the LHC conducted by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, covering a broad range of experimental signatures, including conventional missing transverse momentum topologies to more exotic regimes, such as long-lived particles and dark sector phenomena. Both classic WIMP and alternative non-WIMP scenarios will be covered.

    Go to contribution page
  165. Laura Molina Bueno (IFIC (CSIC/UV))
    05/06/2026, 10:00
    Oral presentation

    The origin and composition of Dark Matter (DM) remain one of the major open questions in particle physics. Dark Sectors (DS) provide a compelling framework in which DM can arise as a thermal relic in the sub-GeV mass range (the so called Light DM). In this talk, I will provide an overview of the potential of fixed target experiments to probe such scenarios and of their complementarity with...

    Go to contribution page
  166. Nicolao Fornengo (University of Torino and INFN/Torino)
    05/06/2026, 10:30
    Oral presentation
  167. Teresa Marrodan Undagoitia (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik)
    05/06/2026, 11:00
    Oral presentation

    This talk will summarize the main topics and results discussed during the week of the conference, focussing on direct dark matter detection, axion searches, and detector instrumentation.

    Go to contribution page
  168. Igor García Irastorza (Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA) - Universidad de Zaragoza)
    05/06/2026, 11:30
  169. Sarah Braun (TU Wien, Marietta Blau Institut)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for Signals seen in Next‑generation Underground Searches) develops cryogenic scintillating calorimeters with NaI target crystals to provide a model‑independent cross‑check of the DAMA/LIBRA result. Because hygroscopic NaI cannot withstand direct deposition of a tungsten transition‑edge sensor (W‑TES), COSINUS employs the remoTES design, in which the TES is...

    Go to contribution page
  170. Valerio Toso (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN))
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    Scintillating crystals are among the most widely used particle detectors in research laboratories, industry, nuclear medicine, and physics experiments. Some of these tend to degrade when exposed to environmental humidity, such as NaI(Tl). This makes the crystals difficult to handle, can limit their use in specific applications or forces the selection of alternative materials with suboptimal...

    Go to contribution page
  171. Laura Trombetta (UNIMIB & INFN-MIB)
    Axion/Sterile
    Poster

    Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are well-motivated dark matter candidates. We present the potential of the RES-NOVA experiment, originally designed for astrophysical neutrino detection via CEνNS, to probe axion interactions using ultra-low background cryogenic detectors based on archaeological Pb. RES-NOVA employs PbWO4 crystals grown from ultra-radiopure archaeological Pb and operated...

    Go to contribution page
  172. Grzegorz Zuzel (Jagiellonian University)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The direct search of dark matter is a mature field in which performing improvements in sensitivity is utterly challenging. Besides scaling up the size of detectors, the most promising approach is the reduction of backgrounds. DarkSide-20k (DS-20k) has gone through a thorough characterization campaign to achieve the desired background level. The result of this is that the dominant source of...

    Go to contribution page
  173. Andreas Erhart (Technical University of Munich (TUM))
    Instrumentation
    Oral presentation

    Searches for light dark matter and studies of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering require detector technologies with energy thresholds in the 10-100 eV regime. While cryogenic calorimeters are a leading technology in this domain, a precise calibration of their response to sub-keV nuclear recoils remains a central experimental challenge. The CRAB collaboration has developed a novel,...

    Go to contribution page
  174. Margarita Kaznacheeva (Technical University of Munich)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    In Coherent Elastic Neutrino–Nucleus Scattering (CEνNS), a neutrino scatters coherently off an entire nucleus via a weak neutral-current interaction, producing a low‑energy nuclear recoil, typically in the sub‑keV range for reactor antineutrinos. As such, CEνNS represents both a powerful probe for neutrino physics and an irreducible background for direct dark matter searches, where nuclear...

    Go to contribution page
  175. Danaé Valdenaire (MBI, TU Wien)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) is a cryogenic dark matter experiment operated at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy.

    The experiment aims to detect dark matter–nucleus interactions using scintillating calorimeters equipped with transition edge sensors (TESs) to measure phonon signals at millikelvin temperatures, complemented by the...

    Go to contribution page
  176. Mayank Tripathi (University of Chicago)
    Direct Detection
    Oral presentation

    The PICO collaboration operates bubble chambers to search for WIMP dark matter, leveraging the excellent gamma rejection and long live fractions enabled by operating at a lower degree of superheat than the bubble chambers of the 1960s. This advancement allows for significantly improved background rejection while maintaining sensitivity to nuclear recoils. Located at the SNOLAB underground...

    Go to contribution page
  177. Francesca Scarcella (Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria)
    Astrophysical observations
    Oral presentation

    Dark matter can form very steep density enhancements, or spikes, around black holes. Recent work has proposed that unusually rapid orbital‑period decay observed in two nearby black‑hole X‑ray binaries could be caused by such spikes. If confirmed in systems where current formation models do not predict them, this would imply far more widespread, dense dark‑matter structures than expected. We...

    Go to contribution page
  178. Patrick Knights (University of Birmingham)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The quest to directly detect dark matter and unravel the nature of neutrinos has driven the development of experimental techniques with unprecedented sensitivity, placing extreme demands on detector-material-induced backgrounds. As a result, the choice of construction materials, particularly those in direct contact with the target medium, has become a critical limiting factor. Electroformed...

    Go to contribution page
  179. Federico Francesco Scamporlino (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    CYGNO is an international collaboration working on the development of a directional detector whose main goal is the direct detection of rare events, such as Dark Matter (DM) in the mass range below few tens of GeV/c2, by means of a gaseous detector. It exploits the expected directional anisotropy of the DM candidates by measuring the orientation of the track, in addition to the energy released...

    Go to contribution page
  180. Yubo Zhou (Imperial College London)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a dark matter (DM) detection experiment that has demonstrated world-leading sensitivity to GeV-mass DM and $^{8}\mathrm{B}$ solar neutrinos. An ionization-only (S2-only) analysis can enhance LZ’s sensitivity to lower-mass DM, provided that electrode-related backgrounds can be effectively mitigated. Long-lived $^{210}\mathrm{Pb}$ on the electrode wires from...

    Go to contribution page
  181. Nahuel Ferreiro Iachellini (University of Milano-Bicocca)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    Dark matter remains one of the most compelling open questions in fundamental physics. While experimental efforts continue to improve in sensitivity, the observation of a simple excess above background would not be sufficient to claim discovery or determine the origin of a potential signal. Characteristic signatures are essential to discriminate between dark matter scenarios.

    Among the most...

    Go to contribution page
  182. Carmen Seoane (CAPA - Universidad de Zaragoza)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    The ANAIS-112 experiment operated 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl) detectors at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) from August 2017 to January 2026 with the primary goal of performing a model-independent test of the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA/LIBRA. In addition to the modulation search, the ANAIS-112 dataset provides sensitivity to Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) through...

    Go to contribution page
  183. Miguel Hernandez (University of Zurich)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    We report the first observation of the positron emission process Xe-125 → e+ + ν + I-125 (Q=1.6 MeV) in a liquid xenon detector using post-calibration data from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. We provide an independent measurement of the branching for this decay fraction with a statistical significance of 5.5σ. Xe-125 is a short-lived (τ1/2 ∼ 17 h) isotope of xenon which can be produced by...

    Go to contribution page
  184. Andres Tellez Mora (ETH Zurich)
    Theory & pheno
    Poster

    Multiple-phase xenon-based detectors are among the most promising technologies for sub-GeV dark-matter (DM) detection. Using Density Functional Theory (DFT), we compute DM-induced electronic transitions in xenon for both crystalline and liquid phases within the dark-photon model. This work extends previous DFT-based scattering rate calculations in Xenon by incorporating all-electron...

    Go to contribution page
  185. Suhail Khan (Centre for Theoretical Physics,Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India)
    Cosmology DM
    Poster

    We investigate the phenomenological aspects of a feebly interacting sterile neutrino dark matter candidate within a low-scale seesaw framework. The Type-I seesaw model is augmented by a second complex scalar doublet ($\Phi_{\nu}$), which couples exclusively to the heavy right-handed neutrinos and the lepton doublet, thereby generating the neutrino Dirac mass term while the first scalar doublet...

    Go to contribution page
  186. Mr Seongeun Jeon (POSTECH)
    Light Dark Matter
    Poster

    Low-energy excess (LEE) is a common phenomenon in various solid-state detectors, acting as a significant limiting factor for rare event searches [1]. These anomalous signals create an unwanted noise floor that masks weak interactions, complicating the distinction between true dark matter signals and its backgrounds.
    Graphene Josephson Junction (GJJ) based detectors have recently emerged as a...

    Go to contribution page
  187. Prof. Davide D'angelo (Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy), Edoardo Martinenghi (INFN Milano), Dr Valerio Toso (Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    Among the proposed Dark Matter candidates, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) remain particularly compelling, with searches targeting rare keV-scale nuclear recoils.
    The only long-standing positive indication compatible with WIMPs has been reported by DAMA/LIBRA at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). This result is in tension with null findings from more sensitive...

    Go to contribution page
  188. Lena Hauswald (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The Direct Search Experiment for Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium (DELight) aims to search for Light Dark Matter (LDM) in the in the sub-GeV/c2 mass range. By employing superfluid helium as target material, three independent and distinguishable signal channels are provided. Measuring these signal channels with the required energy and time resolution, as well as with high...

    Go to contribution page
  189. Taylor Gray (Chalmers University of Technology)
    Light Dark Matter
    Poster

    Sub-GeV, or light, dark matter (DM) remains a compelling candidate for the observed DM in the universe. Its suppressed momentum transfer relative to traditional weakly interacting massive particles motivates accelerator-based missing-momentum searches as a powerful and complementary discovery strategy. Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) is designed to probe this regime by measuring the energy...

    Go to contribution page
  190. Judith Dohm
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    The Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is an experiment designed for direct dark matter detection via nuclear recoils. Located in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy, CRESST utilizes cryogenic calorimeters equipped with Transition Edge Sensors (TES) operating in the millikelvin range. During the third phase (CRESST-III), energy thresholds...

    Go to contribution page
  191. Andrea Marasciulli (INFN-LNGS)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    DarkSide-20k (DS-20k) is a direct dark matter search experiment under construction in Hall C at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), L’Aquila, Italy. It aims to probe the cross-section between argon nuclei and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), one of the most promising dark matter candidates, down to 10$^{-48}$ cm$^2$. DS-20k will feature a double-phase time projection...

    Go to contribution page
  192. zakaria ahal (LPTHE, Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences, Ibnou Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco)
    Astrophysical observations
    Poster

    High-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (HF QPOs) are among the most intriguing phenomena
    observed in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) containing black holes or neutron stars. In this paper,
    we investigate the dynamics of charged particles in the vicinity of a Schwarzschild-like black hole
    immersed in a uniform magnetic field (MF) and surrounded by Cold Dark Matter (CDM). Our goal is...

    Go to contribution page
  193. Sarah Farzand (Univeristy of Helsinki)
    Cosmology DM
    Poster

    Understanding the particle nature of dark matter remains one of the key challenges in contemporary physics. Although the thermal relic picture provides a natural explanation for the observed dark matter density, the continuing absence of positive signals in direct detection experiments calls into question the simplest WIMP hypotheses. A compelling alternative scenario emerges when dark matter...

    Go to contribution page
  194. Alexander Böhmer (Marietta Blau Institute (Vienna, Austria))
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    Direct dark matter searches in cryogenic experiments such as COSINUS rely on superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES). Operating temperatures of about 15 mK enables low-noise as well as low heat capacity of all parts and therefore good sensitivity to small energy depositions. However, not all noise sources are fully understood yet, and measurements show deviations from current noise...

    Go to contribution page
  195. David Díez Ibáñez (Laboratoire de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure (LPENS), París), David Díez Ibáñez (Laboratoire de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure (LPENS), París)
    Axion/Sterile
    Poster

    Axions are hypothetical particles proposed to solve the strong CP problem in QCD and are among the most compelling candidates for dark matter. The RADES (Relic Axion Detector Experimental Setup) collaboration is dedicated to axion searches through the development of innovative haloscope detectors, a well-established technique that exploits axion–photon conversion in strong magnetic fields....

    Go to contribution page
  196. Junwen Xiong (Caltech)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment is currently being commissioned at the Canadian underground facility SNOLAB. The experiment uses four detector towers that contain 24 detectors in total, including both interleaved Z-dependent Ionization and Phonon (iZIP) and high-voltage (HV) detectors with germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) targets. The iZIP detectors measure both charge and phonon signals and...

    Go to contribution page
  197. Ángela Turnes Méndez (Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB))
    Cosmology DM
    Poster

    The observation of highly magnified individual stars at cosmological distances, such as Icarus and Earendel, has opened a new window to study the small-scale distribution of matter within galaxy clusters. Near cluster critical lines, extreme magnification factors make sub-critical dark matter fluctuations (such as axion minihaloes or cold dark matter subhaloes) potentially detectable.
    When a...

    Go to contribution page
  198. Clemens Dittmar (Max Planck Institut for Physics)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    Background control is a central requirement for COSINUS to perform a model-independent check of the longstanding DAMA/LIBRA DM-induced annual modulation claim. For COSINUS-Run 1, a comprehensive background assessment has been developed based on a detailed Geant4 implementation of the full detector, cryostat and shielding geometry. A dedicated material screening campaign provided the...

    Go to contribution page
  199. Seo Hyun Lee
    Light Dark Matter
    Poster

    The Neutrino Elastic-Scattering Observation with NaI(Tl) (NEON) experiment is primarily designed to detect coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEνNS). The experiment is also being expanded to investigate dark sector particles emitted by high-energy photons from the reactor core, as well as other reactor neutrino interactions.
    NEON operates at the Hanbit Nuclear Power Plant in...

    Go to contribution page
  200. Martin Stahlberg (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    COSINUS is a cryogenic direct detection experiment that searches for dark matter. Its aim is to measure phonon signals from nuclear recoils in sodium iodide (NaI) crystals using transition-edge sensors (TES). NaI is incompatible with standard TES fabrication, preventing TES-based phonon readout on this target material. To overcome this limitation, we have developed and tested the remoTES with...

    Go to contribution page
  201. Gyunho Yu (Institute for Basic Science)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The detection of coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering (CEvNS) is one of the primary research topics in contemporary neutrino experiments, as its observation provides critical insights not only into the Standard Model but also into physics beyond the Standard Model, such as non-standard neutrino interactions, and establishes the neutrino floor relevant for dark matter searches....

    Go to contribution page
  202. Luis Eduardo Franca (Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo (IFUSP), Brazil)

    The COSINE-100 was a direct dark matter search experiment that utilized 106 kg of NaI(Tl) crystals, primarily designed to test the annual modulation signal reported by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration. An analysis threshold of 8 photoelectrons, corresponding to 0.7 keVee, has been achieved, providing sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter candidates. A well-motivated interaction channel is the...

    Go to contribution page
  203. Tianyu Zhu (U Tokyo IPMU)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    We present a search for magnetic inelastic dark matter (MiDM) with XENONnT, targeting a delayed-coincidence signature that provides directional sensitivity in a liquid xenon detector. In the MiDM framework, dark matter consists of two states, $\chi$ and $\chi^*$, separated by a mass splitting $\delta$ and coupled via a magnetic dipole moment $\mu_\chi$. An inelastic scatter off a xenon nucleus...

    Go to contribution page
  204. Vitor Machado (University of São Paulo)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    Multiply-Interacting Massive Particles (MIMPs) are ultraheavy dark matter particles with mass in the $10^{10}-10^{20}$ GeV range, which interact strongly with baryonic matter but may have evaded detection due to the low density required to form the local dark matter halo. MIMPs arise naturally in unifying theories that predict colored and electroweak-stable states, as well as in supersymmetric...

    Go to contribution page
  205. Louis Hamaide (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz)

    Many well theoretically motivated models of ultralight dark matter are expected to give rise to feeble oscillatory forces on macroscopic objects. Optically trapped sensors have high force sensitivities but have remained relatively unexplored in this context. In this work we propose a new, tunable, optically trapped sensor specifically designed to detect such forces. Our design features a...

    Go to contribution page
  206. Erin Barillier (University of Zurich)

    Dual-phase xenon time projection chambers achieve optimal sensitivity for 10-1000 GeV dark matter in the galactic halo, but sub-GeV dark matter particles lack sufficient energy to produce nuclear recoils above detection thresholds. However, relativistic blazar jets may accelerate sub-GeV dark matter particles in their host galaxy halo to energies detectable by liquid xenon dark matter...

    Go to contribution page
  207. Susmita Das (Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF, Bidhannagar, Kolkata – 700064, India and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Training School Complex, Anushakti Nagar, Mumbai 400094, India)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    Dark matter direct detection experiments require ultra-low background conditions to observe rare interaction events. This work presents a Monte Carlo study of neutron background reduction for the Indian Dark matter search Experiment (InDEx) at the Jaduguda Underground Science Laboratory (JUSL). Neutron background, the dominant limitation at JUSL (555 m depth; 1406 mwe), arises from radiogenic...

    Go to contribution page
  208. Swadheen Bharat (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)
    Direct Detection
    Poster

    The DArTinArDM detector, designed to measure the residual 39Ar activity in underground argon (UAr) in a timely manner, has started data taking at the Canfranc Underground Lab. It is a key facility for the DarkSide-20k liquid argon dark matter experiment, currently under construction at LNGS. A precise understanding of detector response and backgrounds is essential to quantify the sensitivity...

    Go to contribution page
  209. Won Kyung Kim (University of Science & Technology (UST), IBS School)
    Axion/Sterile
    Poster

    The third-forbidden non-unique $\beta$-decay of Rubidium-87 to Strontium-87 ($Q = 283.3$ keV) provides a sensitive probe of nuclear matrix element (NME) calculations and the quenching of the axial-vector coupling constant ($g_A$). To investigate this, we have developed a 10 mol% rubidium-doped CsI scintillator, forming an intrinsic 'source-in-detector' configuration with an activity of...

    Go to contribution page
  210. Stefan Horodenski (University of Bonn)
    Axion/Sterile
    Poster

    Supax is a haloscope style experiment to search for axions around $30\,\mu eV$ utilizing superconducting RF cavities. Results of the axion search with the pathfinder experiment conducted at the university of Mainz will be presented as well as the status of the next phase of the experiment which is currently constructed at the university of Bonn. This setup will be operating at a temperature...

    Go to contribution page
  211. Kilian Heim (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    To cross-check the longstanding DAMA/LIBRA dark matter claim, the COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next generation Underground Searches) experiment applies the same target material, namely sodium iodide (NaI), operated as cryogenic calorimeters at temperatures around 15 mK. A COSINUS detector module consists of a NaI crystal, which is glued on a silicon disk, equipped with...

    Go to contribution page
  212. Rebecca Hampp
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The XLZD (XENON-LUX-ZEPLIN-DARWIN) collaboration is developing the next-generation dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) for dark matter and rare-event searches. To significantly enhance the sensitivity beyond current experiments, XLZD aims to scale the target mass by increasing the TPC dimensions to 3 meters in both height and diameter.
    To demonstrate the feasibility of this scale,...

    Go to contribution page
  213. Sebastian Sassi (University of Helsinki)
    Theory & pheno
    Poster

    Theoretical studies of direct detection of dark matter (DM) conventionally assume the standard halo model (SHM) and an isotropic target response. However, studies of the structure of the Milky Way halo on one hand, and of sub-GeV DM on the other hand, motivate a broader program where anisotropies in both the DM velocity distribution, and in the material response, must be accounted for. Unlike...

    Go to contribution page
  214. Daniele Montanino (Università del Salento & INFN Lecce)
    Instrumentation
    Poster

    The SABRE North experiment at LNGS is developing ultra-high radiopurity NaI(Tl) detectors to search for dark matter. Radio-purity, especially at the very low level of content required by DM searches, is an extremely challenging task, only partially solved so far for NaI(Tl) crystals.
    To achieve its goal, SABRE North utilizes the technique called Zone Refining for NaI powder purification. In...

    Go to contribution page