Probing large mass-splitting inelastic Dark Matter with RES-NOVA
D. Alloni, G. Benato, P. Carniti, M. Cataldo, L. Chen, M. Clemenza, M. Consonni, G. Croci, I. Dafinei, F. A. Danevich, C. de Vecchi, D. Di Martino, R. Elleboro, N. Ferreiro Iachellini, F. Ferroni, F. Filippini, S. Ghislandi, A. Giachero, L. Gironi, P. Gorla, C. Gotti, D. L. Helis, D. V. Kasperovych, V. V. Kobychev, G. Marcucci, A. Melchiorre, A. Menegolli, S. Nisi, M. Musa, L. Pagnanini, L. Pattavina, G. Pessina, S. Pirro, S. Pozzi, M. C. Prata, A. Puiu, S. Quitadamo, M. P. Riccardi, M. Rossella, R. Rossini, E. Sala, F. Saliu, A. Salvini, V. I. Tretyak, L. Trombetta, D. Trotta, H. Yuan, J. Luengas, H. Ramani
astro-ph.CO, hep-ex, hep-ph, physics.ins-det
Submitted: 2026-07-20
Comments: reference update
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Probing inelastic dark matter at large mass splittings requires heavy target nuclei, an extended recoil-energy range, and the high-velocity tail of the dark-matter distribution.
Terminology
Abstract
Probing inelastic dark matter at large mass splittings requires heavy target nuclei, an extended recoil-energy range, and the high-velocity tail of the dark-matter distribution. We exploit these features with the RES-NOVA prototype detector, featuring a PbWO4 cryogenic calorimeter, produced from archaeological Pb and operated at the deep-underground laboratory of Gran Sasso of INFN (Italy), analyzing a 32.4 g day exposure over 2.5 keV - 1 MeV under both the Standard Halo Model (SHM) and a Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)-motivated velocity distribution. We extend direct-detection constraints beyond the 330 keV reach of established technologies (e.g. Xe-based TPCs), probing splittings up to 510 (780) keV in the SHM (LMC) benchmark, while future exposures will probe new regions of the parameter space.
Sources
- Inelastic Dark Matter
- The Inelastic Frontier: Discovering Dark Matter at High Recoil Energy
- Luminous Dark Matter
- Dark matter detection in two easy steps
- Metastable Nuclear Isomers as Dark Matter Accelerators
- Search for dark matter induced de-excitation of $^{180}$Ta$\rm ^m$
- Constraints on the decay of $^{180m}$Ta
- Dark Matter Constraints from Isomeric $^{\bf 178m}$Hf
- The last Complex WIMPs standing
- Dual-phase xenon time projection chambers for rare-event searches
- A new dark matter direct search based on archaeological Pb
- RES-NOVA: A new neutrino observatory based on archaeological lead
- RES-NOVA sensitivity to core-collapse and failed core-collapse supernova neutrinos
- Pushing the frontier of WIMPy inelastic dark matter: journey to the end of the periodic table
- New experimental limits on the alpha decays of lead isotopes
- Recommended conventions for reporting results from direct dark matter searches
- Enhanced prospects for direct detection of inelastic dark matter from a non-galactic diffuse component
- The Large Magellanic Cloud: expanding the low-mass parameter space of dark matter direct detection
- Probing dark matter interactions with a RES-NOVA prototype cryogenic detector
- First measurement of the partial widths of $^{209}$Bi decay to the ground and to the first excited states
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