Probing Benchmark Models of Hidden-Sector Dark Matter with DAMIC-M.

作者：DAMIC-M Collaboration K. Aggarwal, I. Arnquist, N. Avalos, X. Bertou, N. Castelló-Mor, A. Chavarria, J. Cuevas-Zepeda, A. Dastgheibi-Fard, C. Dominicis, O. Deligny, J. Duarte-Campderros, E. Estrada, R. Gaior, E. Gkougkousis, T. Hossbach, L. Iddir, B. Kavanagh, B. Kilminster, A. Lantero-Barreda, I. Lawson, A. Letessier-Selvon, H. Lin, P. Loaiza, A. Lopez-Virto, R. Lou, K. McGuire, S. Munagavalasa, J. Noonan, D. Norcini, S. Paul, P. Privitera, P. Robmann, B. Roach, M. Settimo, R. Smida, M. Traina, R. Vilar, R. Yajur, D. Venegas-Vargas, C. Zhu, Y. Zhu · 发表于：Physical Review Letters · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1103/2tcc-bqck · 被引用次数：54 · 研究领域：Medicine、Physics

We report on a search for sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles interacting with electrons using the DAMIC-M prototype detector at the Modane Underground Laboratory. The data feature a significantly lower detector single e^{-} rate (factor 50) compared to our previous search, while also accumulating a 10 times larger exposure of ∼1.3  kg-day. DM interactions in the skipper charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are searched for as groups of two or three adjacent pixels with a total charge between 2 and 4  e^{-}. We find 144 candidates of 2  e^{-} and 1 candidate of 4  e^{-}, where 141.5 and 0.071, respectively, are expected from background. With no evidence of a DM signal, we place stringent constraints on DM particles with masses between 1 and 1000  MeV/c^{2} interacting with electrons through an ultralight or heavy mediator. For large ranges of DM masses below 1  GeV/c^{2}, we exclude theoretically motivated benchmark scenarios where hidden-sector particles are produced as a major component of DM in the Universe through the freeze-in or freeze-out mechanisms.