First nuclear ultraheavy dark matter search in argon time projection chambers with the DarkSide-50 experiment

Physical review. D/Physical review. D. 2026 Open access

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Authors: P. Agnes, I. F. M. Albuquerque, T. Alexander, Andrew Knight Alton, M. Ave, H.O. Back, Giovanni Batignani, K. Biery, V. Bocci, W. M. Bonivento, Bianca Bottino, S. Bussino
+88 more M. Cadeddu, Mariano Cadoni, F. P. Calaprice, A Caminata, M. D. Campos, N. Canci, M. Caravati, Nicola Cargioli, M. Cariello, M. Carlini, P. Cavalcante, S. Chashin, Alexander Chepurnov, D. D'Angelo, S. Davini, S. De Cecco, A. Derbin, Marco D’Incecco, C. Dionisi, F Dordei, M. Downing, Malcolm Fairbairn, G. Fiorillo, Davide Franco, F. Gabriele, C. Galbiati, Chiara Ghiano, C. Giganti, Graham Kurt Giovanetti, V. Goicoechea Casanueva, A.M. Goretti, Giovanni Grilli di Cortona, Alexey Grobov, M. Gromov, M. Guam, M Gulino, B. R. Hackett, K. Herner, T. Hessel, Fabrice Hubaut, E. V. Hungerford, A. Ianni, V. Ippolito, K. Keeter, C. L. Kendziora, M. Kimura, I. Kochanek, D. Korablev, George Korga, A Kubankin, Jason Kumar, M. Kuss, M. La Commara, M. Lai, X. H. Li, M. Lissia, O. Lychagina, Igor Machulin, L. P. Mapelli, S. M. Mari, J. Maricic, A. Messina, R. Milincic, Jocelyn Rebecca Monroe, M. Morrocchi, V. N. Muratova, P. Musico, A. O. Nozdrina, A. Oleinik, F. Ortica, L. Pagani, Marco Pallavicini, L. Pandola, E. Pantic, Eugenio Paoloni, K. Pelczar, N. Pelliccia, Stefano Piacentini, Andrea Pietro Pocar, M. Poehlmann, S. Pordes, S. S. Poudel, P. Pralavorio, D. Price, F. Ragusa, M. Razeti, Andrew Lee Renshaw, M. Rescigno
DOI: 10.1103/r3zg-zlfg
Cited by: 0
References: 23

Abstract

We report on the first search for nuclear ultraheavy dark matter (UHDM) in a dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber using the DarkSide-50 experiment. Unlike conventional weakly interacting massive particles, a nuclear UHDM model may be composed of many dark nucleons and scatter numerous times while passing through the detector. Accounting for energy loss through the Earth’s overburden, we apply selection criteria optimized for multiscatter event topologies using the 532-day low-radiation campaign of the DarkSide-50 detector. Excluded limits on the UHDM-nucleon scattering cross section for dark nucleon masses of m χ = 10 , 50 , 100 , 500 GeV / c 2 are presented.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena Neutrino Physics Research Particle Detector Development and Performance

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Volume
114
Issue
5
Pages
052001
Publication date
6 July 2026
Language
EN