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Search for light dark matter in rare meson decays

Ze-Kun Liu^*, Ying Li^†, Biao-Feng Hou ^‡, and Qin Chang^§

Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China

^*Contact author: liuzekun@htu.edu.cn
^†Contact author: liying20239@stu.htu.edu.cn
^‡Contact author: resonhou@zknu.edu.cn
^§Contact author: qinchang@htu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. D 113, 035030 – Published 24 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jk9r-xvph

Abstract

Current dark matter direct detection experiments have low sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter. In this work, we demonstrate that rare $B$ and $K$ meson decays with missing energy in the final state can serve as efficient probes in this mass range. We analyze a generic $Z^{'}$ portal dark matter model and derive upper limits on its parameters from experimental bounds on the rare $B$ and $K$ meson decays. Our results show that such meson decay processes provide complementary constraints to current direct detection experiments for sub-GeV dark matter, particularly for interaction forms mediated by dark matter momentum-dependent operators.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 035030– Published 24 February, 2026

Vol. 113, Iss. 3 — 1 February 2026

Received 5 January 2026
Accepted 30 January 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jk9r-xvph

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

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Search for light dark matter in rare meson decays

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