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Michael Revering (University of Cambridge (GB))11/05/2026, 14:15
Various theories beyond the Standard Model predict new, long-lived particles with unique signatures which are difficult to reconstruct and for which estimating the background rates is also a challenge. Signatures from displaced and/or delayed decays anywhere from the inner detector to the muon spectrometer, as well as those of new particles with fractional or multiple values of the charge of...
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Junyi Cheng (Harvard University)11/05/2026, 14:30
Hidden valley / dark sector models can produce multilepton signals with low backgrounds, especially when vectors decay promptly to charged leptons, a signature which remains relatively unexplored. In this talk, I extend our recent recast of an ATLAS four-lepton search to models in which a scalar mediator $S$, singly produced at the LHC, decays to dark gluons, which in turn produce a shower of...
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Murtaza Safdari (Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (US))11/05/2026, 14:45
Determination of the nature of dark matter is one of the most fundamental problems of particle physics and cosmology. This talk presents recent searches for dark matter particles from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.
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Erdem Yigit Ertorer (Carnegie-Mellon University (US))11/05/2026, 15:00
In this talk, I will be talking about the CMS Run-2 search for dark matter produced in association with a dark Higgs boson decaying into a bottom quark-antiquark pair. The search is performed with proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, taken during the 2016-2018 data-taking period, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. The results are...
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Junzhe Liu11/05/2026, 15:15
The persistent absence of signals in traditional dark matter searches has intensified interest in scenarios beyond the canonical weakly interacting massive particle paradigm. In this work, we investigate the collider phenomenology of feebly interacting dark matter produced via the freeze-in mechanism through a spin-2 portal. We consider a framework in which a massive graviton-like mediator...
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Andrew Evans (University of California Irvine)11/05/2026, 15:30
We propose a new method for discovering dark matter through the scattering of LHC protons off ambient dark matter. Over-dense populations of dark matter may accumulate near the Earthโs surface, for example in scenarios with strongly interacting dark matter. Protons circulating in the beam traverse this over-density and scatter dark matter particles forward along the beam direction, generating...
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Tomoya Iizawa (University of Tokyo (JP))11/05/2026, 15:45
Dark matter is believed to constitute approximately 25% of the total energy density of the Universe, as inferred from observations such as galactic rotation curves and the cosmic microwave background, yet it has not been directly detected. Axion-like particles (ALPs), predicted in various extensions of the Standard Model, are well-motivated dark matter candidates in the MeVโGeV mass range....
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Peisi Huang11/05/2026, 16:30
We consider a dark sector consisting of fermionic dark matter (DM) charged under a broken dark $U(1)_D$ gauge symmetry, interacting with the Standard Model through kinetic mixing. In such models, the DM annihilation cross section is typically suppressed by the small kinetic mixing and or a heavy mediator, often leading to an overabundant relic density. We show that the observed DM abundance...
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Jack Genovesi (Pennsylvania State University)11/05/2026, 16:30
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a dark matter direct detection experiment located 4,850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota. The detector is a dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) that utilizes 7 tonnes of liquid xenon (LXe) as its target medium to search for dark matter interactions, primarily from the highly-motivated candidate Weakly Interacting...
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Carlos Blanco11/05/2026, 16:45
The systematic discovery of optimal sub-GeV dark matter targets, such as anisotropic molecular crystals, is bottlenecked by the computational cost of evaluating complex many-body scattering form factors. In this talk, I will present a novel machine learning framework designed to overcome this barrier by high-throughput screening through the vastness of material space. I will detail how we...
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Chance Hoskinson (University of Utah)11/05/2026, 16:45
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) remain a well-motivated dark matter candidate. We study a minimal extension in which WIMPs are coupled to a heavier, feebly interacting partner that decays into them. In the early Universe, WIMPs in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model serve as a portal to produce this heavy partner population. If the partner thermalizes and decays before...
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Matthew Baldwin11/05/2026, 17:00
Parity symmetry, with an extended gauge group $SU(3)_C\times SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R\times U(1)_X$, can solve the strong CP problem. In particular, models where $SU(2)_R\times U(1)_X$ is broken by the Parity partner of the SM Higgs solves the strong CP problem without introducing extra symmetry. We discuss the possibility of accidentally stable dark matter in this framework and show that...
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Lillian Santos-Olmsted11/05/2026, 17:00
It was recently shown that standard sub-GeV dark matter candidates can be effectively probed by large neutrino observatories via annual modulation of the total photomultiplier hit rate. That work focused on the production of light by the excitation of scintillator molecules and considered the JUNO detector, surpassing limits from dedicated dark-matter detectors and reaching theoretical...
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Megan Hott (Stony Brook University)11/05/2026, 17:15
Accurate predictions for dark matter-electron scattering in solids require an all-electron treatment together with a faithful description of dielectric screening beyond simple approximations. We compute scattering rates that incorporate dielectric screening at the random-phase approximation (RPA) level, including local field effects, with our updated code QCDark2. We show the impact of local...
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Dr Debasish Borah (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati)11/05/2026, 17:15
The persistent null results at dark matter (DM) direct-detection experiments have pushed the popular weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) DM to tight corners. Generic WIMP models with direct-detection rate below the current upper limits often lead to a thermally overproduced relic abundance after freeze-out. To resolve this conundrum, we propose a novel scenario where DM has...
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Samya Roychowdhury (University of Minnesota)11/05/2026, 17:30
Every neutron star is born in the process of core-collapse supernova explosion that, for a brief moment, reproduces conditions of the early Universe with temperatures $T\sim O(30\rm\,MeV)$. We calculate the production of Dark Matter $\chi$ from the SM particles in such events, SM $\to\chi\bar\chi$, for the freeze-in range of couplings, $\alpha_{\rm FI} \sim O(10^{-26}) $, finding that...
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Benjamin Lillard (Pennsylvania State University)11/05/2026, 17:30
Anisotropic direct detection experiments can discover dark matter even in the presence of irreducible Standard Model backgrounds, by using daily modulation to isolate the dark matter signal. Our new ab initio molecular physics package, SCarFFF, makes it possible to sift through millions of molecules to find the ones best suited for dark matter detection. What properties should we be looking...
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Anuvab Sarkar11/05/2026, 17:45
Novel target materials with anisotropic response will play a key role in
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detecting low-mass dark matter in upcoming experiments. Bilayer graphene is one
such material that has been proposed for the detection of sub-MeV mass dark
matter particles via electronic excitations. In this work, we calculate
scattering rate via a massive mediator in bilayer graphene. With an exposure as
small as... -
Alexander Takla (University of Michigan)11/05/2026, 17:45
The singlet-doublet fermion model of dark matter is an economical weak-scale dark matter model, which realizes the dark matter abundance through interactions with the weak bosons of the Standard Model. Depending on the size of the Yukawa couplings in the model, the dark matter relic abundance can be realized via freeze-out (including co-annihilation), co-scattering, freeze-in, or a super WIMP...
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Jonathan Shoemaker (Stanford University)11/05/2026, 18:00
We describe how to optimize ion traps to function as direct detectors of millicharged particles. Although new particles with electric charge O(1) are heavily constrained, particles with lower charges are much less tightly constrained. These millicharged particles could have charges from about 0.1 down to 10^{-6} and can exist over a wide range of masses, starting at about 10 MeV. Few...
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Sunhaeng Hur (Virginia Tech)11/05/2026, 18:00
While Cold Dark Matter (CDM) simulations predict divergent central density profiles (cusps), observations of dwarf galaxies reveal flat, constant-density cores. Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM), composed of ultralight bosons, offers a potential solution through quantum pressure that opposes gravitational collapse, forming a stable cored ground state known as a soliton. However, standard FDM soliton...
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Zachary Bogorad (Fermilab)11/05/2026, 18:15
A terrestrial population of millicharged particles can arise if they constitute a subcomponent of dark matter, or if sufficiently light millicharged particles are produced in cosmic-ray air showers. Through repeated scattering with ordinary matter, these particles thermalize to terrestrial temperatures in Earthโs environment. I will show that a simple electrified shell, such as a Van de Graaff...
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Lilianna Hariasz (Simon Fraser University)11/05/2026, 18:15
In the continued search for dark matter (DM), community interest has extended beyond the standard Weakly Interacting Massive Particle paradigm to a richer set of possibilities. A major focus of upcoming DM searches involves light dark matter (LDM): a new class of candidates with masses on the MeV to GeV scale, characterized by a massive dark photon which mixes kinetically with the SM photon....
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Shuailiang Ge (KAIST & UChicago)12/05/2026, 14:00
We investigate the Berry phase arising from axion-photon and axion-fermion interactions. The effective Hamiltonians in both systems share the same form, enabling a unified description of the Berry phase and offering an alternative viewpoint on current axion experiments. We conceptually propose a new photon-ring experiment for axion detection. Furthermore, we demonstrate that measuring the...
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Bingrong Yu (Cornell University)12/05/2026, 14:15
The microscopic nature of dark matter is the major open question in science. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) are the two most theoretically motivated dark matter candidates. Thousands of papers consider them separately. We point out that if both species are present in the theory, even a tiny (Planck-suppressed) interaction between them can lead to...
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Anirudh Chandra Shekar (Texas A&M University)12/05/2026, 14:30
The Earth may provide an interesting source both for the production and detection of axions. The crust and mantle portion contain heavy radionuclides, which can produce axions either via nuclear transitions or Primakoff scattering. We look at the detection capabilities of large scale neutrino detectors like DUNE, JUNO, etc. in probing the axion-nucleus coupling $g_{aNN}$ as well as the...
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Joseph Takach (UC Berkeley)12/05/2026, 14:45
Despite the possibility of the axion field being in a non-classical state, observing its intrinsically quantum features in a realistic detector is prohibitively difficult. I will discuss the necessary formalism to calculate potentially non-classical statistics of a quantum continuous measurement record, and I will demonstrate the two leading effects that wash out the non-classical statistics:...
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Qiushi Wei (University of Florida)12/05/2026, 15:00
Axions that couple to nuclear spins via the axial current interaction can be both produced and detected using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. In this scheme, nuclei driven by a real oscillating magnetic field in one device act as an axion source, which can drive NMR in a nearby spin-polarized sample interrogated with a sensitive magnetometer. We study the prospects for detecting...
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Soobeom Chung (University of Florida)12/05/2026, 15:15
Relativistic axions produced in the early universe can form a Cosmic axion Background (C$a$B), providing a target that is distinct from conventional cold axion dark matter. In this talk, I will present a framework for searching for the C$a$B using arrays of resonant cavities in a strong magnetic field as in the future ADMX project. Although the C$a$B is broadband and has a much shorter...
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Jaanita Mehrani12/05/2026, 15:30
We propose a novel strategy and a new class of detectors for the direct detection of axion dark matter in the meV mass range, based on resonantly enhanced axionโphoton conversion through the inverse Primakoff effect in engineered radiometers composed of quantum semiconductor heterostructures. Semiconductor-Quantum-Well Axion Radiometer Experiments (SQWARE) are multiple quantum well structures...
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Bethany Suter (UC Berkeley)12/05/2026, 15:45
We perform the highest-throughput search and evaluation of inorganic materials that can serve as excellent low-mass dark matter detectors. We use a graphical neural network (GNN) based on the GNNOpt architecture to learn and generate dielectric tensors, loss functions and sensitivity curves for both isotropic and anisotropic materials. Since the only required input for this GNN model is the...
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Debopam Goswami (Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University)12/05/2026, 16:30
In this work, we propose a novel mechanism for generating gamma rays from the Galactic Center by scattering cosmic-ray protons off dark matter in the Milky Way halo. Unlike conventional explanations based on dark matter annihilation, the photon signal in the inelastic dark matter model arises from subsequent decays of a heavier dark matter component produced by the up-scattering of a lighter...
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Brooks Thomas12/05/2026, 16:30
One effective way of learning about the production and properties of dark matter in the early universe is by extracting information about the primordial dark-matter phase-space distribution from the matter power spectrum. Recently a simple empirical formula was introduced which is capable of reproducing most of the salient features of the dark-matter phase-space distribution โ even in...
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Eve Schoen (UC Berkeley)12/05/2026, 16:45
A 20 GeV excess in the Fermi LAT gamma-ray sky has recently been reported by Totani and interpreted as a potential signal of dark matter annihilation. We independently reproduce this excess and systematically test its robustness. We evaluate the excess across more than 200 diffuse emission models, vary the region of interest, and examine spatial residuals. We additionally show the excess does...
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Benjamin Lehmann (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)12/05/2026, 16:45
The asteroid-mass regime is the key remaining window in which primordial black holes could constitute all of dark matter. I will present a new method to probe a substantial portion of this window usingย X-ray femtolensing. While photometric microlensing requires long observations of very stable compact sources, the energy-dependent features imprinted onto X-ray spectra furnish a clean target...
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Caleb Gemmell (University of Wisconsin - Madison)12/05/2026, 17:00
Standard Model (SM) hadronic parton showers initiated by secondary cosmic-ray production or dark matter (DM) annihilations robustly predict very low antinuclei yields and a strong additional suppression for heavier antinuclei. We show that an important exception can arise if DM annihilates into a confining dark sector that produces Soft Unclustered Energy Patterns (SUEPs). The hallmark of...
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Pierce Giffin12/05/2026, 17:00
Long-range interactions in the dark sector can give rise to collective plasma phenomena that are capable of modifying the evolution of dark matter halos. We present the first study of gravitational collapse in a secluded dark $U(1)_D$ model using a magnetohydrodynamic description of the dark matter. We show that dark magnetic fields generate an anisotropic pressure that alters the Jeans scale...
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Xiuyuan Zhang12/05/2026, 17:15
The majority of terrestrial direct detection experiments for Dark Matter (DM) rely on the Standard Halo Model (SHM), which assumes the local DM velocity distribution follows a MaxwellโBoltzmann distribution. However, galaxy mergers can deposit DM that remains kinematically clustered today, inducing deviations from the smooth SHM prediction. Previous studies have suggested that the local...
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Riku Mizuta (TRIUMF / University of British Columbia)12/05/2026, 17:15
Inelastic dark matter (iDM) consists of two almost mass-degenerate states with a small mass splitting and has been widely studied for its unique phenomenology. We consider iDM with a light dark photon/lepton-specific scalar mediator which feebly couples to the Standard Model particles. iDM is produced by freeze-in: the couplings are too small to put iDM in chemical equilibrium but can still...
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Sam Huang (Rutgers-New Brunswick)12/05/2026, 17:30
The origin of the Fermi-LAT Galactic Center Excess (GCE)โdark matter annihilation or unresolved point sourcesโhinges on its spatial morphology, which is challenging to disentangle from uncertainties in Galactic diffuse emission. Standard template-fitting approaches typically assume a fixed morphology for the excess, limiting their ability to discriminate between competing interpretations and...
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Tran Quang Thong Nguyen (Stockholm University)12/05/2026, 17:30
Jupiter is an excellent target for dark matter searches. However, the minimum testable dark matter mass is set by evaporation, where thermal interactions with Jovian material exceed the gravitational potential and remove dark matter from the planet, limiting search sensitivity. We show that in the case of leptophilic dark matter, evaporation is strongly suppressed because most electrons are...
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Nimrod Shapir (The University of Chicago)12/05/2026, 17:45
As one of NASAโs proposed Probe Explorers missions, the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) is designed to improve on the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton. AXIS is designed to deliver low-background, arcsecond imaging over a broad $0.3-10$ keV energy range, with an extensive grasp of $1.6\times10^6\textrm{ cm}^2\textrm{ arcmin}^2$ at 1 keV....
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Mathilda Denison (University of Pennsylvania)12/05/2026, 17:45
Persistent small-scale challenges to the ฮCDM cosmological model have motivated the consideration of dark matter models with richer phenomenology. We consider a dark QCD scenario in which dark axions mediate a screened force between dark baryons within dark matter halos. Finite-density corrections to the dark QCD quark condensate introduce a density-dependent interaction term between dark...
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Fabrizio Vassallo (University of Wisconsin-Madison)12/05/2026, 18:00
Antideuterons and antihelium in cosmic rays are widely regarded as smoking-gun signatures of dark matter annihilation. The tentative AMS observations are therefore intriguing, but difficult to explain within conventional models, which predict negligible antihelium fluxes. We propose a class of scenarios in which dark matter annihilates into particles carrying baryon and lepton number. Their...
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Bowen Chen (Ohio State University)12/05/2026, 18:00
Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the asteroid-mass window ($10^{17}-10^{22}$ g) are a well-motivated dark-matter candidate, and Hawking radiation sets constraints based on their evaporation outcomes such as photons, electrons and positrons. In this specific mass range, the Hawking temperatures are high enough to facilitate the generation of electron-positron pairs, which can contribute to the...
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Afif Omar12/05/2026, 18:15
Residual annihilation of sub-GeV mass thermal relic dark matter candidates during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) can impact its predictions of light element abundances. Focusing on candidates with velocity-suppressed annihilation channels, I will discuss how the hadronic injection of pions and kaons beyond freeze-out, and their subsequent interaction with protons and neutrons prior to the...
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Dawid Brzeminski12/05/2026, 18:15
Ultralight dark matter with quadratic couplings to the Standard Model need not have a homogeneous local profile. Scattering on macroscopic bodies can distort the field configuration near Earth and, for sufficiently large couplings, the atmosphere acts as an efficient shield. I will discuss this effect in the context of clock searches and show that space-based platforms offer a natural way...
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