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1. Indirect detection of dark matter absorption in the Galactic Center

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/02/017  

   Boddy, Kimberly K; Dutta, Bhaskar; Evans, Addy J; Huang, Wei-Chih; Moltner, Stacie; Strigari, Louis E (February 2025, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics)

   Abstract We consider the nuclear absorption of dark matter as an alternative to the typical indirect detection search channels of dark matter decay or annihilation. In this scenario, an atomic nucleus transitions to an excited state by absorbing a pseudoscalar dark matter particle and promptly emits a photon as it transitions back to its ground state. The nuclear excitation of carbon and oxygen in the Galactic Center would produce a discrete photon spectrum in the𝒪(10) MeV range that could be detected by gamma-ray telescopes. Using theBIGSTICKlarge-scale shell-model code, we calculate the excitation energies of carbon and oxygen. We constrain the dark matter-nucleus coupling for current COMPTEL data, and provide projections for future experiments AMEGO-X, e-ASTROGAM, and GRAMS for dark matter masses from ∼ 10 to 30 MeV. We find the excitation process to be very sensitive to the dark matter mass and find that the future experiments considered would improve constraints on the dark matter-nucleus coupling within an order of magnitude. 

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2. Search for the dark photon in B0 → A′A′, A′ → e+e−, μ+μ−, and π+π− decays at Belle

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2021)191  

   Park, S.-H.; Kwon, Y.-J.; Adachi, I.; Aihara, H.; Al Said, S.; Asner, D. M.; Atmacan, H.; Aushev, T.; Ayad, R.; Babu, V.; et al (April 2021, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   A bstract We present a search for the dark photon A ′ in the B 0 → A ′ A ′ decays, where A ′ subsequently decays to e + e − , μ + μ − , and π + π − . The search is performed by analyzing 772 × 10 6 $$ B\overline{B} $$ B B ¯ events collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB e + e − energy-asymmetric collider at the ϒ(4 S ) resonance. No signal is found in the dark photon mass range 0 . 01 GeV /c 2 ≤ m A ′ ≤ 2 . 62 GeV /c 2 , and we set upper limits of the branching fraction of B 0 → A ′ A ′ at the 90% confidence level. The products of branching fractions, $$ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({B}^0\to A^{\prime }A^{\prime}\right)\times \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}{\left(A\prime \to {e}^{+}{e}^{-}\right)}^2 $$ ℬ B 0 → A ′ A ′ × ℬ A ′ → e + e − 2 and $$ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({B}^0\to A^{\prime }A^{\prime}\right)\times \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}{\left(A\prime \to {\mu}^{+}{\mu}^{-}\right)}^2 $$ ℬ B 0 → A ′ A ′ × ℬ A ′ → μ + μ − 2 , have limits of the order of 10 − 8 depending on the A ′ mass. Furthermore, considering A ′ decay rate to each pair of charged particles, the upper limits of $$ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({B}^0\to A^{\prime }A^{\prime}\right) $$ ℬ B 0 → A ′ A ′ are of the order of 10 − 8 –10 − 5 . From the upper limits of $$ \mathrm{\mathcal{B}}\left({B}^0\to A^{\prime }A^{\prime}\right) $$ ℬ B 0 → A ′ A ′ , we obtain the Higgs portal coupling for each assumed dark photon and dark Higgs mass. The Higgs portal couplings are of the order of 10 − 2 –10 − 1 at $$ {m}_{h\prime}\simeq {m}_{B^0} $$ m h ′ ≃ m B 0 ± 40 MeV /c 2 and 10 − 1 –1 at $$ {m}_{h\prime}\simeq {m}_{B^0} $$ m h ′ ≃ m B 0 ± 3 GeV /c 2 . 

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3. TIDMAD: Time Series Dataset for Discovering Dark Matter with AI Denoising

   Fry, J T; Fu, Xinyi_Hope; Fu, Zhenghao; Pappas, Kaliroe_Mabelle_West; Winslow, Lindley; Li, Aobo (September 2025, The Thirty-ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems Datasets and Benchmarks Track)

   Dark matter makes up approximately 85% of total matter in our universe, yet it has never been directly observed in any laboratory on Earth. The origin of dark matter is one of the most important questions in contemporary physics, and a convincing detection of dark matter would be a Nobel-Prize-level breakthrough in fundamental science. The ABRACADABRA experiment was specifically designed to search for dark matter. Although it has not yet made a discovery, ABRACADABRA has produced several dark matter search results widely endorsed by the physics community. The experiment generates ultra-long time-series data at a rate of 10 million samples per second, where the dark matter signal would manifest itself as a sinusoidal oscillation mode within the ultra-long time series. In this paper, we present the TIDMAD—a comprehensive data release from the ABRACADABRA experiment including three key components: an ultra-long time series dataset divided into training, validation, and science subsets; a carefully-designed denoising score for direct model benchmarking; and a complete analysis framework which produces a physics community-standard dark matter search result suitable for publication as a physics paper. This data release enables core AI algorithms to extract the dark matter signal and produce real physics results thereby advancing fundamental science. The data downloading and associated analysis scripts are available at https://github.com/jessicafry/TIDMAD. 

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4. Even lighter particle dark matter

   https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhysProc.12.001  

   Chavarria, Alvaro E. (July 2023, SciPost Physics Proceedings)

   We report on recent progress in the search for dark matter particleswith masses from 1 Mev c ^{-2} − 2 to 1 Gev c ^{-2} − 2 .Several dark matter candidates in this mass range are expected togenerate measurable electronic-recoil signals in direct-detectionexperiments. We focus on dark matter particles scattering with electronsin semiconductor detectors since they have fundamentally the highestsensitivity due to their low ionization threshold. Charge-coupled device(CCD) silicon detectors are the leading technology, with significantprogress expected in the coming years. We present the status of the CCDprogram and briefly report on other efforts. 

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5. Search for low-mass electron-recoil dark matter using a single-charge sensitive SuperCDMS-HVeV detector

   https://doi.org/10.1103/5lnp-6mng  

   Albakry, M F; Alkhatib, I; Alonso-González, D; Anczarski, J; Aralis, T; Aramaki, T; Ataee_Langroudy, I; Bathurst, C; Bhattacharyya, R; Biffl, A J; et al (February 2026, Physical Review D)

   We present constraints on low-mass dark matter electron scattering and absorption interactions using a SuperCDMS high-voltage eV-resolution (HVeV) detector. Data were taken underground in the NEXUS facility located at Fermilab with an overburden of 225 meters of water equivalent. The experiment benefits from the minimizing of luminescence from the printed circuit boards in the detector holder used in all previous HVeV studies. A blind analysis of $6.1\mathrm{g}·\mathrm{days}$ of exposure produces exclusion limits for dark matter-electron scattering cross sections for masses as low as $1\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$ , as well as on the photon-dark photon mixing parameter and the coupling constant between axionlike particles and electrons for particles with masses $>1.2\mathrm{eV}/c^2$ probed via absorption processes. 

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