Speaker
Description
We present the first global QCD analysis of electron-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering and related high-energy data that incorporates the contribution of a dark photon. Our results reveal a significant reduction in $\chi^2$ relative to the baseline QCD fit, providing the first indirect hint of a dark photon's existence. Furthermore, we explore the implications of a dark photon on parity-violating electron scattering, rare kaon decays, and electroweak precision observables. Finally, we discuss the dark photon as a portal to the dark sector. Specifically, we construct a viable model featuring axial couplings between the dark photon and Dirac fermion dark matter. This scenario yields much wider regions of the dark parameter space that satisfy all existing constraints from thermal relic density, direct detection, and collider searches.