21st Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs

Session

Friday Morning Session

13 Nov 2026, 08:40

University of Western Australia

40. Where can Dark Matter be hiding?

Prof. Anthony Williams (University of Adelaide)

13/11/2026, 08:40

Oral Presentation

The absence of signals in Dark Matter (DM) detection experiments to date motivates scenarios in which the leading detection signals are absent or suppressed. We examine two such cases, using the framework of Effective Field Theory.

i) Pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter: For fermionic DM that is coupled to Standard Model (SM) fermions via pseudoscalar interactions, the tree-level elastic...

60. Cosmological tests of thermal axions

Prof. Marcin Badziak (University of Warsaw)

13/11/2026, 08:55

Oral Presentation

Axions can be produced thermally in the Early Universe leaving imprints in cosmological observables. I will discuss recent developments in the computation of the abundance of thermally produced axions and present improved cosmological constraints on axion interactions. Cosmology provides the strongest constraints to date on several axion couplings. Based on 2410.18186 and 2511.14864 and some...

138. Sub-Kelvin characterization of the BAUSCIA detector

Leonardo Mariani (Bicocca)

13/11/2026, 09:10

Oral Presentation

We report the full sub-Kelvin characterization of the BAUSCIA high-frequency gravitational-wave antenna and the current status of its pilot science run. The detector is based on cryogenic Bulk Acoustic Wave resonators coupled to SQUID amplifiers for signal readout. An end-to-end characterization of the experimental chain, from the resonators to the DAQ, shows that resonator thermal noise...

22. New Perspectives on the QCD Axion

Prof. Tony Gherghetta (University of Minnesota)

13/11/2026, 10:30

Invited Presentation

I will describe recent new perspectives on the QCD axion that go beyond the minimal picture, including the origin of the axion’s fundamental scale, how the underlying symmetry can be protected from quantum gravity, and mechanisms that modify the axion mass while still solving the strong CP problem. Together, these ideas can significantly redirect experimental search strategies and open...

41. New physics searches at the NA62 experiment

Gianluca Lamanna

13/11/2026, 10:50

Invited Presentation

The NA62 experiment at CERN is designed to measure the highly-suppressed decay $K^{+} \to \pi^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ and has collected a large sample of $K^+$ decays in flight during Run 1 (2016--2018) and Run 2 (2021--2026). Searches for the decay $K^{+}\rightarrow\pi^{+}X$ using data from 2016--2022, set upper limits on the branching ratio at the $10^{-11}$ level, constraining a broad range of...

42. Capture and Thermalisation of Dark Matter in Stars

Prof. Nicole Bell (The University of Melbourne)

13/11/2026, 11:10

Oral Presentation

The capture of dark matter in stars provides a cosmic laboratory in which to study the nature of dark matter particles and their interactions under extreme conditions. We discuss the capture of dark matter in neutron stars and white dwarfs, and the heating caused by the subsequent thermalisation and annihilation of that dark matter. We find that most of the dark matter’s kinetic energy is...

36. Direct Dark Matter Detection with the DarkSide-20k Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber at LNGS

Paolo Salomone (The University of Chicago)

13/11/2026, 11:25

Oral Presentation

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are considered one of the most promising candidates for dark matter (DM) and could potentially be detected through their interactions with standard model particles.
The DarkSide program has pioneered the development of two-phase argon time projection chambers (TPCs) for direct DM searches, employing low-radioactivity argon extracted from...

64. Liquid He tuning of dark matter axion haloscopes

Arthur Talarmin (CNRS - Institut Néel)

13/11/2026, 11:40

Oral Presentation

Haloscopes are sensitive detectors used for dark matter axion search in the microwave energy range. They rely on the axion to photon conversion in a static magnetic field, and its amplification by resonance with a cavity electromagnetic mode. While simple cylinder cavities working below 1 GHz can provide large volume detectors of typically a hundred liters or more (GrAHal-CAPP), searches at...