IRN Terascale @ Heidelberg

Session

Dark Universe

19 oct. 2026, 14:20

International Academic Forum - Heidelberg University

26. Latest results from LZ

Dr Joshua Green (University College London)

19/10/2026 14:20

Dark Universe

The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment is a liquid-gas dual phase time projection chamber primarily searching for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). It has been collecting science data with a 7-tonne active xenon target near-continuously since 2021. LZ has reported world-leading WIMP dark matter searches, a measurement of coherent solar $^8$B neutrino scattering on...

21. Interpreting the LZ Excess: Models, Constraints and Phenomenological Challenges

MATTIA DI MAURO (INFN TORINO)

19/10/2026 14:55

Dark Universe

The recent high-energy recoil event reported by LUX-ZEPLIN has motivated a broad range of dark-matter interpretations. In this talk I will review the main theoretical scenarios that have been proposed, including thermal Higgsino and minimal electroweak dark matter, pseudo-Dirac models, endothermic and exothermic dark matter, and elastic momentum-dependent interactions.

I will focus in...

28. Assessing the sensitivity to ALPs with VHE gamma-ray observations of selected AGN and galaxy cluster pairs

cervane grimaud (IRFU / CEA Paris-Saclay)

19/10/2026 16:05

Dark Universe

Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) are well-motivated candidates for light dark matter and may couple with photons in the presence of astrophysical magnetic fields which give rise to the possibility of photon-ALP oscillations. If sufficiently strong, this mixing can induce characteristic energy-dependent feature in gamma-ray spectrum of astrophysical sources.

In this work, we explore the...

13. Light vector mediators as a window to dark matter

Ana Foguel (University of Bologna)

19/10/2026 16:30

Dark Universe

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics remains an incomplete theory, with the nature of dark matter (DM) among its major open questions. Guided by symmetry and simplicity, a new dark sector can communicate with the SM through three renormalizable portals: vector, scalar and neutrino. In particular, the vector portal is among the minimal realizations, with the standard dark photon as its...

25. FIMPs in the Inert Doublet Model

Thomas REGGIO (LPCA)

19/10/2026 16:55

Dark Universe

The Inert Doublet Model (IDM) is one of the most studied models of frozen-out WIMP dark matter. In this talk we will see that, depending on the thermal history of the universe, the IDM dark matter candidate can effectively behave as a FIMP despite being charged under the electroweak gauge group. We will discuss the DM abundance predicted by the IDM under different cosmological assumptions and...