The LUX-ZEPLIN collaboration operates a 7-tonne active mass, two-phase xenon Time Projection Chamber surrounded by multiple anti-coincidence vetoes. In its search for the elusive dark matter, the LZ experiment involves researchers from 6 countries and 4 continents. It is located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. LZ seeks standard Weakly Interacting Massive...
The Belle and Belle II experiment have collected samples of $e^+e^-$
collision data at centre-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. Using a 426 fb$^{-1}$ sample collected
by Belle II, we search for inelastic dark matter...
CRESST-III (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) installed at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, is looking to directly detect dark matter particles scattering off CaWO4 target nuclei in cryogenic detectors. Thanks to its energy threshold O(30 eV), CRESST-III is particularly suitable in probing sub-GeV DM masses. This contribution presents an overview of CRESST-III,...
Over the past twenty-eight years, the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has observed an annual modulation signal that is consistent with a dark matter explanation. Unfortunately, the signal is contradicted by the null results of numerous experiments utilizing different target materials. In order to perform a truly model-independent investigation of the DAMA/LIBRA result, a study with the same target...
Launched at the end of 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already begun to revolutionize our view of the cosmic dawn era. Specifically, it discovered an unexpectedly large number of extremely bright objects in the sky from the early Universe, whose light was emitted more than thirteen billion years ago. If these objects are interpreted as some of the first galaxies ever...
Observations of intermediate mass and dwarf galaxies are hard to reconcile with the results of numerical simulations of cold collisionless dark matter (CDM). The most notable problems are (i) the core-cusp problem, or the inability of DM-only simulations to reproduce flat density profiles, i.e., cores, in the centers of dwarf galaxies, (ii) the diversity of the central density profile slopes,...
Disk-halo decompositions of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at redshifts z > 1 typically focus on massive galaxies with stellar masses exceeding log(M⋆/M⊙) > 10.
In this study, we analyse the dark matter (DM) halo properties of 127 intermediate-redshift (0.3 < z < 1.5) SFGs down to low stellar masses (7 < log(M⋆/M⊙) < 11). To do so, we use integral field unit observations from the MUSE Hubble...
SABRE is an international collaboration that will operate similar particle de-
tectors in the Northern (SABRE North) and Southern Hemispheres (SABRE
South). This innovative approach distinguishes possible dark matter signals
from seasonal backgrounds, a pioneering strategy only possible with a southern
hemisphere experiment. SABRE South is located at the Stawell Underground
Physics...
The presence of a non-baryonic Dark Matter (DM) component in the Universe is inferred from the observation of its gravitational interaction. If Dark Matter interacts weakly with the Standard Model (SM) it could be produced at the LHC. The ATLAS Collaboration has developed a broad search program for DM candidates in final states with large missing transverse momentum produced in association...
The initiative to detect dark matter directly has been prominent for decades after the WIMP miracle was proposed. Following this, many institutions have come forward with a variety of dark matter direct detection experiments, each trying to find the possible missing particle of the universe. Most prominently, the DAMA collaboration published their results during the end of the last century,...
We propose a novel method to determine the mass scale of ambient dark matter that can be generally applied to the (at least effectively) two-dimensional direct detection experiments allowing for directional observables. Due to the motions of the solar system and the Earth relative to the galactic center and the Sun, the dark-matter flux carries a directional preference. We first formulate that...
Within present observational uncertainties, the time evolution of dark
energy discovered by DESI (2025) is consistent with a simple model in
which the dark energy density maintains a direct dependence on the
${\mid \Omega - 1 \mid}$ measure of spatial curvature. This, together
with Bousso’s (2002) conjecture that the holographic bound of the
universe saturates at the observer’s apparent...
We consider different observational effects to test modified gravity approach involving the cosmological constant in the common description of the dark matter and the dark energy. We obtain upper limits for the cosmological constant by studying the scaling relations for 12 nearby galaxy clusters, the radiated power from gravitational waves and the Tully-Fisher relation for super spiral...
The global network of pulsar timing arrays have recently announced the detection of a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) in the nano-Hertz frequency regime. In this talk, I will discuss the implications of early seeding of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) for the observed SGWB. Assuming that these SMBHs were seeded by the collapse of supermassive, dark matter–powered stars (dark...
Dark matter (DM) might have non-gravitational interactions with the standard sector, which would leave signatures in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Traditional searches for such interactions focus on their imprints in CMB power spectra, or 2-point functions. In this talk I will argue that there is valuable information in both the CMB monopole's frequency spectrum, i.e. deviations...
Compact objects as dark matter have historically been constrained by their dynamical effects. Since these objects can participate in hard few-body scattering processes, they can readily transfer energy to visible objects, with effects such as the disruption of wide binaries. However, binary disruption is not the only possible outcome of such few-body encounters. I will discuss recent work on...
The cosmological principle assumes the isotropy of the Universe. The high coverage of the Zwicky Transient Facility survey (ZTF) makes it possible to carry out an unprecedented study of the veracity of this principle by using observation of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia).
This unique low redshift (z<0.15) survey with more than 3000 SNe Ia in the second data release (ZTF-DR2-SNe Ia) increases...
Supernova explosions are extreme cosmic events that may impact not only ordinary matter but also dark matter (DM) halos. In this talk, I explore the possibility that a fraction of supernova energy is released as dark radiation, which could transform a cuspy DM halo into a cored one, potentially explaining observed cores in some dwarf galaxies. Alternatively, limits on DM core sizes provide...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is scanning the Northern sky since 2018 with a 1.2 m class telescope installed at the Mont Palomar Observatory. This survey detects any transient in the nearby Universe within its magnitude limit, typically up to a redshift of 0.15. In February 2025, the Cosmology working group has released a set of more than 3600 Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) corresponding to...
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a synoptic astronomical survey of large étendue (more than 20000 deg2) starting in october 2025. A systematic scan of the celestial sphere will be perform for ten years, leading to the largest astronomical catalog ever compiled (83 pB) with 17 billions of stars and 20 billions of galaxies.
With a high...
Dark kinetic heating of neutron stars has been extensively studied as a promising dark matter detection avenue. This occurs when dark matter is accelerated to relativistic speeds in the gravitational well of high-escape velocity objects, and deposits its kinetic energy after becoming captured by the object, thereby increasing its temperature. I will show how this effect can also arise in...
The gravitational lensing parallax of gamma-ray bursts (GRB), also known as picolensing, is a promising probe of compact dark matter, such as primordial black holes (PBH). A future space mission consisting of two X-ray/gamma-ray detectors in the Swift/BAT class can probe PBHs in the asteroid-mass window — a range of masses that has been notoriously hard to constrain by any other means. I will...
The nature of a certain type of supercooled phase transition, where the supercooling is guaranteed to end due to the curvature of the potential at the origin experiencing a sign flip at some temperature. As the potential barrier is quickly vanishing at the temperature scale of the phase transition, is not immediately clear if critical bubbles are able to form. This clearly can have large...
Primordial black holes (PBHs) have been invoked as a component of dark matter, and PBH mergers will produce copious gravitational radiation. The future launch of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), an ESA/NASA gravitational wave observatory set to launch in 2035, will open a new low-frequency band of the gravitational wave sky, one that may include PBH mergers. Our work focuses on...
Gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences offer a promising avenue for inferring the Hubble parameter independently of electromagnetic distance ladders or cosmic microwave background observations. As an independent probe of cosmic expansion, it has the potential to contribute to ongoing efforts to resolve the Hubble tension and to shed light on the properties of the dark sector. In...
