Recherches sur la matière noire au-delà du WIMP - Ana Martina Botti (Fermilab)

Dark matter searches beyond the WIMP: pushing sensitivities with skipper-CCDs

In recent years, advancements in theoretical frameworks have motivated searches for light-dark matter particles in the meV–GeV mass range, demonstrating their compatibility with cosmological observations. Emerging technologies, such as Skipper-CCDs, enabled the development of small- and medium-scale experiments optimized for exploring these models. Skipper-CCDs are pixeled silicon detectors with a deep sub-electron resolution that allows the detection of eV energy transfers, such as that expected from light-dark matter interacting with electrons in a silicon target. SENSEI is the first experiment to use skipper-CCD and to produce world-leading results using this technology. In this talk, I present an overview of the SENSEI experiment and the current status after successfully commissioning the second science run at SNOLAB. I will also discuss the prospects in rare-events searches with skipper-CCDs, from SENSEI’s 100 g detector to OSCURA’s 10 kg array and more.