Probing Minimal Models Of Highly Predictive Dark Matter

• Gordan Krnjaic (Fermilab)

Room: 360 Tory Building

Radio echoes of axion dark matter

• Katelin Schutz

Room: 360 Tory Building

Looking for light dark states with taus or time

• Patrick Fox

Room: 360 Tory Building

Non-equilibrium Dynamics Of Light Scalars Coupled To Dark Sectors

• Gopolang Mohlabeng (University of California, Irvine)

Room: 360 Tory Building

New Strategies for sub-GeV Direct Detection

• Benjamin Lillard (Pennsylvania State University)

Room: 360 Tory Building 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 for? In this talk, I show how an ensemble of different materials could provide the foundation for an unambiguous discovery of dark matter, and I explain why the ideal detector should include both parity-breaking and parity-symmetric materials.

Superradiant Interactions (aka coherent inelastic interactions)

• Asimina Arvanitaki

Room: 360 Tory Building

Dark matter drag on Saturn's Rings

• Zachary Picker (Queen's University, Kingston)

Room: 360 Tory Building If dark matter is sufficiently light, it can coherently scatter with macroscopic objects, greatly enhancing its scattering cross-section. This allows the wind of dark matter through our Solar System to apply sizeable forces on objects. It turns out that the ideal size of object for which the coherent effect is maximized but the acceleration is still large is in the 1-10 cm range. This motivates us to look for observational effects in the dense planetary ring systems in which these particles sizes dominate. We find that the dark matter creates a drag force on Saturn's rings which can be larger than the equivalent effect from Solar radiation, and which would affect smaller particles more than larger ones. It may have been possible to use this to constrain the dark matter---however, as it turns out, there actually *is* a yet-unexplained mass segregation which has been observed in Saturn's main rings.

Diluted and Blast Frozen Dark Matter

• Miha Nemevsek (Jožef Stefan Institute and University of Ljubljana)

Room: 360 Tory Building

The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment: overview and status of commissioning and the first science run

• Matthew Wilson (University of Toronto)

Room: 360 Tory Building SuperCDMS SNOLAB is a cryogenic experiment projected to achieve world-leading sensitivity for dark matter particles below 10 GeV/$c^{2}$ using semiconductor crystal detectors. The experiment employs two detector types: iZIP detectors, which utilize both phonon and charge channels to provide excellent nuclear recoil/electron recoil discrimination, and HV detectors, which utilize the NTL effect to amplify the measurable phonon signal in proportion to an applied external electric field to achieve lower detection thresholds. Commissioning of the full 24 detector payload, comprising both silicon and germanium iZIP and HV detectors, began in early 2026. This talk presents preliminary results from the characterization and commissioning of the full detector payload, along with a first look at early SuperCDMS SNOLAB data. As the experiment begins its first science run, this talk will also discuss the experimental outlook and ongoing R\&D efforts aimed at developing the next generation of low-background detectors for sub-GeV dark matter detection.

PICO explores the spin-dependant dark matter interaction

• Alan Robinson (Université de Montréal)

Room: 360 Tory Building The ton-scale PICO-500 experiment is under construction at SNOLAB. This long-anticipated experiment pushes the limits existing bubble chamber technology and sensitivity to WIMP dark matter. We will look at what is possible with this technology, why we are building it, and what results to expect in the near future.

Probing Inflationary Reheating with Dark Matter

• Yong Xu (McGill University)

Room: 360 Tory Building The thermal history of the Universe before Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) remains one of the least constrained epochs in cosmology, owing to the absence of direct observational probes. Reheating, which bridges the end of inflation and the onset of the radiation-dominated era, plays a central role in shaping the thermal history before BBN, yet its dynamics remain poorly understood. Since dark matter (DM) production depends sensitively on the thermal history prior to BBN, it can serve as a probe of reheating and, more broadly, of the pre-BBN Universe. Using representative examples such as sterile neutrinos, axions and ALPs, I will show how DM production and possible observational signatures can extract information about reheating dynamics and key parameters. DM is therefore not only a major cosmic component, but also a record of the cosmological history that shaped its production.

SQWARE-ing the Circle: A new strategy to close the meV axion gap

• Andrew Long (Rice University)

Room: 360 Tory Building Since the mass scale of QCD axion dark matter is not known, a diverse array of experimental techniques are required to ensure complete coverage over the space of theories. Currently coverage is lacking at meV masses, corresponding to the so-called terahertz gap. In this talk I will describe the Semiconductor-Quantum-Well Axion Radiometer Experiment (SQWARE) — a new experimental platform for direct detection of axion dark matter in the meV mass range — based on resonantly enhanced axion-photon conversion through the inverse Primakoff effect in engineered quantum semiconductor heterostructures. I will describe the operating principles of the proposed experiment, present the projected sensitivity to axion dark matter, and discuss ongoing work in laboratories at the Rice Center for Quantum Materials.

Exploring hidden sectors with the DarkLight experiment

• Laura Miller (TRIUMF)

Room: 360 Tory Building The nature of dark matter remains one of the largest open questions in particle physics. Despite numerous theories and experimental searches, both small-scale and large-scale, it has so far remained unobserved at the particle level. The DarkLight experiment located at TRIUMF in Vancouver, Canada aims to leverage the ARIEL electron linear accelerator to search for a new dark sector force carrier in the 10-20 MeV range. Such a force carrier would undergo kinetic mixing with Standard Model photons, and could provide possible explanations for experimental anomalies like the X17. The DarkLight experiment was installed in 2025, and completed its first commissioning runs in early 2026. This talk will primarily focus on highlighting the results of this commissioning as well as future plans.

Nuclear quantum optics and the QuIPS experiment

• Daniel Carney (Berkeley National Lab)

Room: 360 Tory Building

Pathway towards reaching the neutrino floor with xenon

• Thomas Brunner (McGill University)

Room: 360 Tory Building Next-generation experiments searching for dark matter particles are aiming to reach the neutrino fog, thus requiring unprecedented low levels of backgrounds while simultaneously maximizing target mass. This increases technical challenges and complexity as well as the cost, necessitating large collaborations. As the field advances, the community will need to continue consolidating on a few technologies in order to realize experiments capable of probing the remaining WIMP parameter space, with the opportunity to also measure solar neutrinos and atmospheric neutrinos via coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. Two-phase xenon time-projection chamber technology has emerged as an attractive approach for rare-event search experiments. It has been well established and multiple detectors of a few tons of Xe are currently searching for signatures of dark matter. Based on the successful operation of XENONnT and LZ, the XLZD collaboration is proposing to deploy nominally 60 tonnes of Xe in an experiment capable of reaching the neutrino fog. One additional advantage of xenon-targets is the natural abundance of the double-beta decaying isotope Xe-136. Given its size and low background levels, XLZD will also have a significant sensitivity to neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ). This possibility unites two rare-event search communities, DM and 0νββ, hence increasing the chances of realizing a flagship experiment capable of exploring a significant parameter space for two of the most compelling contemporary physics searches. I will discuss general challenges of realizing next-generation rare-event search experiments and the opportunities that arise from merging the DM and 0νββ scientific interests in XLZD. A united community can realize a coherent, collaborative xenon program capable of delivering transformative discoveries in neutrino and dark matter physics.

Direct detection searches for dark matter with liquid argon

• Simon Viel (Carleton University)

Room: 360 Tory Building Liquid argon is an excellent target material in direct detection experiments searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. It is an abundant noble element, is transparent to its own scintillation light, and features exquisite performance in pulse-shape discrimination, enabling ultra-low-background searches. This talk will discuss results from DEAP-3600 and DarkSide-50 in the search for new particles, including light dark matter and solar axions. The sensitivity of next-generation detectors will also be explored: DarkSide-20k, a time projection chamber under construction at LNGS with essential Canadian contributions; ARGO, a 300-tonne fiducial mass detector being designed for deployment at SNOLAB; and AURORA, a proposed tonne-scale time projection chamber optimized as a low-threshold electron-counting measurement using only the ionization channel to have sensitivity to GeV-scale dark matter.

NGC 1068 constraints on neutrino-dark matter scattering

• James Cline (McGill University, (CA))

Room: 360 Tory Building The IceCube observations of neutrinos from two active galactic nuclei allow one to constrain the interactions of neutrinos with dark matter. The presence of a dark matter spike around the central supermassive black hole leads to limits on the scattering cross section that can exclude new regions of parameter space, depending upon the spike density profile and the energy-dependence of the cross section. The utility of the model-independent constraints is illustrated for dark photon mediators that couple to B-L.

New probes of a light dark sector in vacuum birefringence tests

• Joshua Berger (Colorado State University)

Room: 360 Tory Building

Boosted dark matter from semi-annihilations

• Alejandro Ibarra (Technical University of Munich)

Room: 360 Tory Building

Dark Matter @ Finite Temperature

• Saniya Heeba (McGill University)

Room: 360 Tory Building

Advancing Science Underground: Capabilities and Research at SNOLAB

• Jodi Cooley (SNOLAB)

Room: 360 Tory Building Located deep underground in Canada, SNOLAB is a world-leading facility for astroparticle physics and rare-event science, and a global hub for discovery at the frontiers of knowledge. Its exceptional depth and ultra-clean environment provide an unparalleled setting for next-generation experiments searching for some of the universe’s most elusive phenomena. This talk will explore SNOLAB’s unique capabilities, its role in the international research ecosystem, and highlight the scientific advances and innovations emerging from its program.