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Detecting meV-scale dark matter via coherent scattering with an asymmetric torsion balance

Pengshun Luo1, Shigeki Matsumoto2,*, Jie Sheng2,3,4,5,†, Chuan-Yang Xing3,6,5,‡, Lin Zhu1,§, and Zhi-Jie Zhuge1

  • *Contact author: shigeki.matsumoto@ipmu.jp
  • †Contact author: shengjie04@sjtu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: cyxing@upc.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: zhulin36@mail.hust.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075023 – Published 14 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nhcn-9p3j

Abstract

Dark matter with mass in the crossover range between wave dark matter and particle dark matter, around (10−3,103)  eV, remains relatively unexplored by terrestrial experiments. In this mass regime, dark matter scatters coherently with macroscopic objects. The effect of the coherent scattering greatly enhances the accelerations of the targets caused from dark matter collisions by a factor of ∼1023. We propose a novel torsion balance experiment with test bodies of different geometric sizes to detect such dark-matter-induced acceleration. This method could provide the strongest sensitivity on the scattering cross section between the dark matter and a nucleon in the mass range of (10−3,1)  eV.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075023– Published 14 October, 2025
  • Received 23 September 2024
  • Revised 12 April 2025
  • Accepted 29 August 2025
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