The COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches) experiment is a state-of-the-art cryogenic initiative in the field of dark matter direct detection. Operating at millikelvin temperatures and utilizing ultrapure NaI detectors, COSINUS employs a two-channel readout system utilizing transition edge sensors (TESs), allowing for effective particle...
SABRE aims to deploy arrays of ultra-low background NaI(Tl) crystals to carry out a model-independent search for dark matter through the annual modulation signature. SABRE will be a double-site experiment, made up of two ...
The elusive nature of dark matter has prompted innovative and open-minded experiments across a broad spectrum of energies employing high-sensitivity detectors, but despite the numerous attempts none has yielded up to now any evidence [1]. Inserted into this landscape is the Positron Annihilation into Dark Matter Experiment (PADME) at the Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati of INFN [2].
PADME...
In the last decades, the existance of dark matter (DM) has become one of the key elements of modern physics. Direct evidence of this exotic form of matter can be found by searching for extremely rare nuclear recoils of regular matter with energy of the order of few keV. The peculiar motion of the Earth around the centre of the Galaxy induces a strongly anisotropical structure in the angular...
In ecent years, we witnessed an increasing growth in the research of light Dark Matter (DM) candidates, addressing in particular axions and axion-like particles (ALPs). If axions are found to exist, they would untie the long-standing DM problem, after being originally postulated as a solution to the strong CP problem. The nature of a pseudoscalar, electrically neutral and feebly interacting...
Axion emission is known to be strongly constrained by neutrino-burst data from SN 1987A. Compton-like nucleon-pion to nucleon-axion scattering has recently been shown to be an important mechanism, due also to the large baryon densities involved. We perform a first quantitative study of the role of hadronic matter beyond the first generation -- in particular strange matter. We consistently...
We propose a comprehensive study of the Direct Detection phenomenology of singlet Dark Matter $t$-channel portal models. For that purpose, we present a complete computation of the loop induced direct detection cross-section for both scalar and fermionic Dark Matter candidates. We complete the study comparing the results with current and future bounds from Direct Detection experiments and...
First-order phase transitions, which take place when the symmetries are predominantly broken (and masses are then generated) through radiative corrections, produce observable gravitational waves and primordial black holes; also, if observed, they would signal new physics. I discuss a model-independent approach that is valid for large-enough supercooling to quantitatively describe these...
The QCD axion is the most robust explanation to the strong CP problem and provides a good dark matter candidate. A population of QCD axions can be produced in the early universe via scattering with SM particles, and can be searched for in cosmological datasets. I will present the state-of-the-art bound on the minimal QCD axion model by confronting momentum-dependent Boltzmann equations, from...
Confining QCD-like sectors are often present in BSM phenomenology. We critically reconsider the argument based on 't Hooft anomaly matching that aims at proving chiral symmetry breaking in 4d confining QCD-like theories with $N_c>2$ colors and $N_f$ flavors. We provide a detailed proof and clarify under which (dynamical) conditions the historical approach of $N_f$-independence holds, as a...
Scalar fields can be accidentally light if symmetries forbid their tree-level masses in the potential at the renormalizable level. We present some example models with small symmetry groups (typically SU(n) x U(1)) but with the scalars transforming in large representations. We discuss possible applications to generating natural hierarchies of scales in models with elementary scalars. In...
We consider a light scalar dark matter candidate with mass in the GeV range whose p-wave annihilation is enhanced through a Breit-Wigner resonance. The annihilation proceeds in the s-channel via a dark photon mediator. We compute the temperature at which kinetic decoupling between dark matter and the primordial plasma occurs and show that including the effect of kinetic decoupling can reduce...
