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Creators/Authors contains: "Montefalcone, Gabriele"

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  1. Leptophilic sub-MeV spin-zero dark matter (DM) decays into photons via one-loop processes, a scenario that has been in part overlooked in current literature. In this work, we provide updated and comprehensive upper limits on scalar, pseudoscalar, and axionlike DM-electron couplings based on the latest cosmic microwave background data from . Our bounds on the couplings are not only competitive with astrophysical and terrestrial experiments, but outperform them in certain regions of parameter space. Notably, we present the most stringent limits to date on scalar DM with masses around a few keV and pseudoscalar DM with masses between 100 eV and a few keV. Additionally, we explore, for the first time, the impact of implementing a cosmology-consistent treatment of energy deposition into the cosmic medium. Published by the American Physical Society2025 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available July 7, 2026
  2. We investigate the influence of the reheating temperature of the visible sector on the freeze-in dark matter (DM) benchmark model for direct detection experiments, where DM production is mediated by an ultralight dark photon. Here, we consider a new regime for this benchmark: we take the initial temperature of the thermal Standard Model (SM) bath to be below the DM mass. The production rate from the SM bath is drastically reduced due to Boltzmann suppression, necessitating a significant increase in the portal coupling between DM and the SM to match the observed relic DM abundance. This enhancement in coupling strength increases the predicted DM-electron scattering cross section, making freeze-in DM more accessible to current direct detection experiments. Published by the American Physical Society2025 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 17, 2026